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Guaranty Pest Control12/30/2002
eat the [house] at no additional cost where an active infestation" was confirmed. Guaranty also agreed, for an additional yearly sum of $30, to reinspect the property and to extend its contract obligations on a year-to-year basis.
A representative of Guaranty then undertook to inspect the Bushes' property and to treat the property for subterranean termites; that representative reported no existing termite damage to, or termite infestations in or near, the Bushes' uncompleted house. On April 26, 1979, two days after his wife had signed the contract, James Bush signed a work-order form in which he acknowledged satisfactory completion of the treatment specified by Guaranty in the contract; he subsequently paid Guaranty for the work in the installments specified in the contract. Guaranty issued the Bushes a certificate, labeled "Bonded Guarantee," in which it agreed to provide general termite treatment and to inspect that work for a one-year period; to retreat termite reinfestations " uring the life of the contract and extensions thereto"; and to renew the contract for the yearly payment of $30. At the time of Guaranty's work on the Bushes' house in 1979, all of the brick had been laid and the exterior of the house had been finished; only the upstairs portion of the house remained to be completed.
Over the course of the following 20 years, the Bushes paid Guaranty the amounts specified in the April 24, 1979, contract form and the April 30, 1979, "bonded guarantee" form to extend Guaranty's inspection and retreatment obligations. During that period, a representative of Guaranty made an annual inspection of the Bushes' house, and the Bushes paid Guaranty's bill each year for that service. However, in October 1998, the Bushes' daughter noticed that one of the beams near the basement fireplace had dropped at least one and a half inches. Upon being informed of the problem, James Bush dismantled some of the fireplace's hearth, the mantle, and the surrounding rock; he discovered an area of water damage and found termites in a wall near the house's carport.
James Bush then initiated repairs to the house, including dismantling the house's brick chimney, and contacted his homeowner's insurer, which engaged Crawford & Company, an independent adjusting firm, to investigate the claim. A number of photographs taken by Crawford & Company personnel in November 1998 and admitted into evidence at trial show no visible roof damage to the Bushes' house, although termite damage is visible in the framing behind where the chimney had been located and on the corner of the Bushes' garage. James Bush also contacted Guaranty and reported that his house was infested with live termites, after which Guaranty sent an exterminator to retreat the house on two different occasions. At trial, James Bush testified that he and his son-in-law had replaced an approximately 20-foot segment of the downstairs wall of the house and 15 feet of upstairs wall; he testified that he had worked for a year and half, for between three and four hours per day, to restore the house. James Bush estimated that his out-of-pocket repair expenses had amounted to $12,500 and opined that the house, which he testified had been worth between $100,000 and $110,000 before the discovery of the termite damage, was worth closer to $80,000 or $90,000. Moreover, James Bush testified that the discovery of termites and the damage to his house had caused him to worry, that he had complained to a doctor about stress related to the termite damage, that he still worries that the house has termites, that the termite damage has caused him and his family aggravation, and that his family had not been able to celebrate Christmas in its normal fashion for two year
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