Board to consider an appeal at December meeting
Placerville, CA . . . In what El Dorado Irrigation District’s General Counsel Tom Cumpston called a “completely surprising verdict,” the 11-member federal court jury hearing the legal dispute between EID and Traylor Brothers, Inc. (TBI) found for Traylor Brothers and against the District. The case involves the Mill-Bull Tunnel that TBI built under contract for EID. The District claimed that the construction company breached the contract because they delivered a defective product. TBI in turn said that the District owed them money for the work the company did to complete the tunnel and correct the error. EID was seeking up to $26 million in damages. Instead, the jury awarded Traylor Brothers $6.2 million.
“This verdict defies common sense,” Cumpston said. “Things apparently went awry when the trial judge refused to rule on which documents were actually in the contract. He left that up to the jury to decide, and that’s a tall order for any group of people who don’t specialize in contract law.
“Our Board members are aghast at the verdict, wondering how the District can contract for a specific product, not receive that product, and then be told to pay the contractor. While nobody likes to drag out legal proceedings, appellate courts exist to correct miscarriages of justice like this. General Manager Ane Deister and I will recommend that the District appeal, and I suspect the Board will have an intensely focused, determined discussion at their December 11 meeting.”
As background, in 1999 the District awarded Traylor Brothers the construction contract for the two-mile-long Mill-Bull Tunnel to convey water to EID’s customers and the District’s hydroelectric powerhouse. During construction, which began in 2001, TBI deviated substantially from the line and grade specified in the contract. When the tunnel emerged from the mountain above Riverton along Highway 50, about nine months later than scheduled, it was approximately six feet too low and about twelve feet too far south.
EID subsequently discovered that TBI had steered the tunnel boring machine as much as eleven feet too low by May 2002, then actually ran it uphill for most of the latter half of the tunnel’s length. As a result, the defective tunnel collects sediment and debris and develops ice blockages in cold weather. Water backing up behind the blockages or hydraulic jets from sudden release of the blockages can damage or destroy the wooden flume structures outside the tunnel and lead to uncontrolled releases of water from the delivery system. These serious problems can hinder or prevent reliable, safe operations of the waterdelivery system. And because much of the tunnel operates fully submerged, it poses a drowning risk to the public and District personnel.
Throughout construction, TBI maintained that work was proceeding satisfactorily and never told EID that a major alignment error had occurred. Once it was clear that the construction company had failed to deliver what EID contracted for and was refusing to correct its work, the District sued TBI and terminated the contract. The trial began in mid-September 2006 and concluded with the jury’s verdict today.
* * * * * For more information, contact Tom Cumpston or Deanne Kloepfer at 530-622-4513.
