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Brock Bridge Limited Partnership Inc. v. Development Facilitators Inc.2/26/1997
Opinion by Davis, J.
Brock Bridge Limited Partnership (BBLP) and Brock Bridge Builders, Inc. (BBBI) appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in favor of Development Facilitators, Inc. (DFI) and Raymond Streib (Streib). Appellants had filed a four-count Amended Complaint on December 23, 1994, alleging breach of a contract to construct roadside improvements in a housing development for the agreed price, malpractice for negligently misrepresenting the costs of construction, malpractice for failure to process an application for a wetlands permit, and intentional misrepresentation.
The court dismissed the intentional misrepresentation claim at the end of the plaintiffs' case. After a ten-day trial without a jury, the court found that appellants had not carried their burden of proof on the breach of contract claim. The court also found that the breach of a contract would not sustain an action sounding in tort, dismissing the claim for malpractice for negligently estimating the costs of construction. Appellants do not appeal the court's disposition of the wetlands claim or its dismissal of the intentional misrepresentation claim. They appeal the court's judgment regarding the breach of contract claim and the negligence claim.
Appellants present the following questions for our review, renumbered and restated as follows:
I. Did the circuit court err as a matter of law when it concluded that BBLP was not indebted to BBBI for BBBI's expenditures for the project?
II. Was the circuit court clearly erroneous in its determination that it could not award damages to appellants based on anything other than pure speculation?
III. Did the circuit court err as a matter of law when it ruled that the evidence did not support a cause of action for negligent misrepresentation against Streib individually?
We answer in the affirmative to all three questions. Consequently, we reverse the judgment as to the first and third issues, and vacate the judgment on the second.
FACTS
The legal relationships of the parties to this case are interwoven with such complexity as to make a detailed explanation unhelpful. Therefore, we shall not attempt to parse out and define every bit player; however, we will provide all of the information necessary to an understanding of the issues underlying this appeal.
BBBI is a Maryland corporation whose principals are George Stone (Stone) and Weston Stone (Weston). In 1988, W.F. Utz Construction Company, Inc. (Utz) contracted to purchase real property in Anne Arundel County from Mary and Lawrence Taylor. Utz retained Streib, an engineer, to provide on-site engineering services through his company, DFI, for a contemplated development on the land, Brock Bridge Estates. Streib is the president of DFI. On June 15, 1990, Utz assigned its interest in the purchase contract to BBBI, including all rights to engineering services rendered with respect to the property. The assignment was intended to cement a relationship by which Utz and Stone would participate in the development project as 50-50 partners.
On March 22, 1991, BBBI, through its principal, Stone, formed BBLP, a limited partnership with BBBI as general partner. At this point, neither Stone nor Utz had committed himself irrevocably to the development project. The latest extension of the purchase contract called for settlement by June 7, 1991. By early 1991, however, bids had been received for most of the project except for the off-site road improvements. Monetary considerations led Stone to inform Streib that the off-site road improvement costs, if too high, could cause Stone to abandon th
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