Road dispute makes it to state Supreme Court

WASILLA — A dispute over roads built in the Knik-Goose Bay Road area wound up before the state Supreme Court, which ruled Friday.

Supreme Court Justice Craig Stowers decided not to change anything in a lower court’s ruling in the case of 3-D and Co. vs. Tew’s Excavating.

The facts of the case as Stowers presented them begin in 2005 when Daniel Derr, owner of 3-D, talked to Tew’s about building roads in 40 acres of land he planned to turn into the Scenic View Subdivision.

Derr needed Tew’s to build an extension of Foothills Boulevard, which intersects with KGB between Miles 5 and 6 and to build Rangeview Drive, which intersects with Foothills south of Lucille Creek.

The two companies signed a contract in 2006 with Tew’s doing the work on Foothills Boulevard and Derr clearing the way.

“Derr was unable to complete the clearing and grubbing because he was arrested for felony (drunken driving),” Stowers writes. “Derr spent the next two years in jail and residential treatment.”

Work continued despite the arrest, with Tew’s stepping in to clear the road.

The Rangeview Drive construction came up soon after, with an oral estimate from Tew’s, a verbal agreement and finally a written contract.

Gravel was to be taken from one of Derr’s parcels.

“The available gravel was sufficient to meet the Borough’s standards for the bottom 18 inches of the road but insufficient for the top six inches,” according to Stowers’ ruling.

They found what seemed like a solution to that problem — crushing the rocks with Tew’s equipment — and work continued. The problems cropped up when the job was finished.

“Derr never informed Tew that he felt that Tew’s work was incomplete or insufficient. Derr measured random road widths and determined the road was not uniformly 24 feet wide. He felt some of the culvert installations were incomplete or in need of repair,” Stowers wrote. He also didn’t think the gravel on the top of the road was the right size and “he felt that the angle of the road slope was improper at various points. He was also unsatisfied with the intersection of Range View and Rolling Hills because it formed a T-intersection rather than a cul-de-sac.”

Tew’s wasn’t given a chance to fix any of that, Stowers wrote.

Derr refused to pay Tew’s’ final invoice for $50,000. Tew’s put a lien on the property and Derr paid it off. Then Derr filed a lawsuit. When a judge awarded him $10,800, with the judge in the case saying Derr couldn’t prove Tew’s owed him more than that. Derr appealed and it was that appeal Stowers and his colleagues shot down Friday.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.