Eastern Steel Constuctors, Inc. v. City of Salem

Eastern Steel Constructors, Inc., a contractor, appeals an order of the Circuit Court of Harrison County granting summary judgment in favor of Kanakanui Associates, a design professional, as to Eastern Steel Constructors claims for professional negligence, implied warranty of plans and specifications, and as a third-party beneficiary to a contract between Kanakanui Associates and the City of Salem, West Virginia. The circuit court rejected the claim for professional negligence based upon its conclusion that, because Eastern Steel Constructors sought only economic damages, this cause of action could be maintained only as a cause of action in contract. With respect to the implied warranty claim, the circuit court reasoned that absent a contract between the parties, there was no duty owed. Finally, the circuit court found that Eastern Steel Constructors was not a third-party beneficiary of the contract between Kanakanui Associates and the City of Salem. After reviewing the parties briefs, the record submitted on appeal, and the relevant law, we find that a contractor may assert a negligence cause of action against a design professional seeking purely economic damages even in the absence of privity of contract, that there exists an implied warranty of plans and specifications that inures to a contractor in the absence of a contract, and finally, that Eastern Steel Constructors failed to establish any evidence supporting its third-party beneficiary claim.