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Lake Almanor Associates L.P. v. Huffman-Broadway Group, Inc.
Filed October 30, 2009, First District, Div. Five
Cite as A122563

Consultant not liable for Untimely EIR Preparation

Lake Almanor Associates L.P. (Lake Almanor) submitted to the County of Plumas (County) a 1,392-acre development project called the “Lakefront at Walker Ranch Project”.

In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the County entered into a written contract (contract) with Huffman-Broadway Group, Inc. (HBG) to prepare the environmental impact report (EIR).

The contract imposed a date within which the EIR must be accomplished. However, HBG failed to meet the deadline. Consequently, the County rejected the draft report and terminated the contract.

The County received invoices from HBG seeking payment for its services. The County, in turn, demanded reimbursement from Lake Almanor as well as the payment for the second consultant to prepare the EIR.

Consequently, Lake Almanor filed a complaint against HBG for breach of contract and negligence. It sought $50 million in damages due to loss of the sale of the property to a third party as the EIR was not completed on time.

The court found in favor of HBG.

On appeal, the California Appeal Court affirmed the lower court’s judgment.

The appeal court ruled that where Lake Almanor submitted a development plan to the County and the latter in turn hired a consultant in this case HBG to prepare an EIR, HBG could not be made liable to Lake Almanor for damages due to HBG’s failure to prepare EIR in a timely fashion.

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