Huntington Woods Heads to Michigan Supreme Court

Huntington Woods recently decided to ask the Michigan Supreme Court to consider a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that reversed a $700,000 jury award in the city's lawsuit against engineering firm Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment, Inc. over work done on Coolidge Highway.

The action was approved unanimously and with little fanfare during a City Commission meeting July 17; the state's top court will decide within 60 to 90 days of receiving the request whether to hear the case, City Manager Alex Allie said.

What happens next, nobody knows

Attorney Burton Shifman of Farmington Hills-based Shifman & Carlson. P.C., which is handling the case for Huntington Woods, said what will happen next is unkown.

"Do we think there's a good basis for it? Yeah," Shifman said. "I think the Court of Appeals decision is not logical."

He said the court found that the standard of care under the law requires plans and specifications be followed strictly in such work and that the engineering firm failed to do so by not ensuring a particular binder was used, which resulted in the road falling apart.

"You could say a brain surgeon who didn't cut quite right didn't follow standards strictly," Shifman said. "There are some things where you have to be exactly right."

Defense attorney Greg Thomas admitted a different binder than what was specified in the plans was used in the project, but said a better product that came recommended by the Michigan Department of Transportation was applied instead.

The standard of care is "what a reasonably prudent engineer would or wouldn't do under the circumstances," said Thomas, who added Huntington Woods failed to present an expert who would testify that the engineering firm deviated from the standard of care.

"It's my surmise that (the Supreme Court) won't hear (the case)," Thomas said. "This is a very simple issue that has been ingrained in Michigan state law since the 1960s.

"In a case of professional negligence, you need to introduce testimony from a member of the profession that says, number one, what the defendant did was a deviation from the standard of care," he said. "You also need an expert that says that deviation from reasonable conduct caused damage. Huntington Woods introduced neither."

A little history

Now in the fifth year of its legal battle with Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment, Inc., Huntington Woods received the setback from the Michigan Court of Appeals this spring.

On May 10, the court’s decision to reverse the jury’s verdict in favor of the city and against OHM was announced. The jury had awarded the city nearly $700,000 for professional negligence after Huntington Woods complained about the deterioration of Coolidge Highway following OHM's work on the road.

In the fall of 2001, the city had agreed to add a 4-inch asphalt cap to the east side of Coolidge in order to match the road elevation of the west lanes the City of Oak Park just had reconstructed. While Oak Park opted for concrete for its shared portion of Coolidge Highway, which remains in decent condition, Allie said the asphalt on Huntington Woods' side began to show major signs of damage quickly, resulting in the current construction on the roadway.

Huntington Woods sued the contractor and engineers for the approximate cost of the 2001 project and, though the city later settled with the contractor outside of court, the case against OHM went to trial March 15, 2010, C&G News reported. 

The Oakland County Circuit Court jury ruled in favor of Huntington Woods for $700,000 in damages – the decision reversed after OHM appealed. 

City Manager Alex Allie said it is "very rare" for the Court of Appeals to overturn a jury award.