Barrie v. Abate

Delaplaine, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This suit was brought in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County by Alford Barrie and Sylvia Barrie, his wife, purchasers of realty, to recover damages from Nicholas J. Abate and Metha Abate, his wife, the vendors, for alleged breach of contract. By the contract, executed on March 23, 1953, the vendors agreed to sell to the purchasers a parcel of land located on Deerfield Road in Colonial Village at Pikesville, to be improved by a brick dwelling which the vendors promised to build in accordance with plans and specifications and to complete on or about August 1,1953. It was mutually agreed that the property would be subject to an annual ground rent of $120 to be created for a term of 99 years.

The purchasers agreed to pay the sum of $16,500 for the property, $1,000 of which was paid at the execution of the contract, the balance to be paid at the time of settlement. Settlement was made on July 14, 1953. Plaintiffs alleged that defendants promised to build the house in accordance with plans and specifications on file with the Federal Housing Administration; and that they ⁵⁸¹ did not make settlement until after defendants assured them that they had complied with all of the terms of the contract and would repair any defects in the house. Plaintiffs then alleged that they moved into the house immediately after the settlement, and put some of their furniture and a lot of merchandise in the cellar; and that there was a heavy rain that night, and in the morning when they went to the cellar they were astounded to find water about four feet deep surrounding practically all of the furniture and merchandise.

They then alleged that they requested Abate to remedy the condition, but he refused to make any repairs, stating that plaintiffs had settled for the house and defendants had delivered a deed therefor; and that they accordingly engaged a building contractor to inspect the house, and he made various recommendations to improve the cellar, rear porch, front porch, and other parts of the house, all of which would require plaintiffs to spend the sum of $1,485 to make the house conform to the covenants of the contract. They further alleged that the water that flooded the cellar damaged their clothing and merchandise, and that the damages were the result of the negligence of defendants in failing to construct the house in accordance with the terms of the contract. At the trial in the Court below, Barrie proffered to testify: (1) that both before settlement and again at the time of settlement Abate stated that there might be some leaks in the cellar and other things which are natural when a new house settles, and that he would come back from time to time to make the necessary corrections; (2) that the house was not properly built, and he requested Abate to make the necessary repairs, but he refused to do so; (3) that it became necessary to engage another contractor to make the cellar watertight; (4) that when the backfill was excavated around the house he saw that the parging did not extend throughout the entire depth of the foundation, but was only partially completed; (5) that the backfill was done in a careless and negligent manner; and (6) that he was required to pay the contractor $600 to do the waterproofing work. ⁵⁸² Plaintiffs also proffered testimony of Mrs. Barrie and George Blake, the contractor, and also Clarence C. Gebb, Chief Building Inspector of Baltimore County, and F. L. W. Moehle, an architect, to show that the house was not built in accordance with thé plans and specifications. The trial judge refused to