Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. v. Sisson & Ryan, Inc.

In September 1979, a building under construction on behalf of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia (C & P) collapsed after a heavy rain. C & P sued its excavation-grading contractor, Sisson and Ryan, Inc. (S & R or the “grading contractor”), and S & R’s surety, Federal Insurance Company (Federal). S & R filed third party claims against the project’s architects, Smithey & Boyton (the “architects”), and against the project’s general contractor, C. L. Lewis (the “general contractor”). The third-party actions were dismissed on demurrer. The case proceeded to a jury trial on C…