United States Tenth Circuit

In a dispute arising from circumstances in which plaintiff contracted to construct a power line and a fiber-optic line for defendant-city, but the city refused to pay a portion of the price upon completion of the project due to alleged delays, a judgment awarding plaintiff a portion of its requested amount is affirmed over plaintiff's claims of error regarding: 1) whether the contract's force-majeure clause did not excuse plaintiff for delays caused by late deliveries from its pole supplier; 2) the enforceability of a liquidated-damages provision; 3) whether that provision allowed the court to apportion delays between the parties; 4) prejudgment interest on plaintiff's damages; 5) a special interrogatory asking the jury whether the parties had modified their contract; and 6) the court's responses to questions from the jury.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/30/2007
• Published 05/01/2007

Judges

• HARTZ, Circuit Judge., Before HARTZ, EBEL, and O'BRIEN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Bryan W. Smith, Cavanaugh, Smith & Lemon, P.A., Topeka, KS, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Justice B. King (Richard Petersen-Klein with him on the brief), of Fisher, Patterson, Sayler & Smith, LLP, Topeka, KS, for Defendant-Appellee.