Jones v. Emerald Pacific Homes, Inc.

Emerald Pacific Homes, Inc. (Emerald) contracted to build plaintiffs a custom home. Satisfied with neither the quality nor the speed of construction, plaintiffs brought this action against Emerald and its owners (collectively, defendants) for negligence and breach of contract. At the conclusion of plaintiffs’ case-in-chief, the trial court granted defendants’ “motion for partial directed verdict” 1 on the negligence claim, ruling that the only duties that defendants allegedly breached derived from the contract and not from some independent source of law. The contract claim proceeded;…