Limiting the Contractor’s Duties to Complying with Plans and Specifications

Some contracts attempt to limit a contractor’s duties to simply conforming to certain plans and specifications. At least one court attempting to explain Alabama construction law in this area has found that such a provision invokes an implied duty that the workmanship involved has been performed in accordance with reasonably acceptable standards of the area. See C.P. Robbins & Associates v. Stevens, 53 Ala. App. 432, 301 So. 2d 196 (Ala. Civ. App. 1974); see also, Turner v. Westhampton Court, LLC, 903 So. 2d 82 (Ala. 2004) (“The law implies a duty upon all contracting parties to use reasonable skill in fulfilling their contractual obligations. This obligation manifests itself in the implied warranty of workmanship. While improper or faulty construction constitutes a technical performance of the contract and may survive a pure breach-of-contract action, an action alleging the breach of an implied warranty, such as the implied warranty of workmanship, can overcome this obstacle.”). As a general rule, an owner is presumed to warrant that the plans he supplies are not defective. See United States v. Spearin, 248 U.S. 132 (1918).