Hazard, Jr. Enterprises, Inc. v. Insurance Co. of the West

At issue here is whether Hazard, Jr. Enterprises, Inc. (Hazard), a validly licensed general building contractor, can recover under a contract with Valley Parkway for commercial subdivision site work. The trial court ruled Hazard could not maintain this action because the work required a general engineering contractor’s license. We conclude Hazard was properly licensed and accordingly, we reverse and remand.

Factual and Procedural Background

Hazard was licensed as a general building contractor in 1946, and from the late 1950’s built large commercial projects such as supermarkets, shopping centers and hotels. In conjunction with construction activity, Hazard performed more than $100 million worth of site work, including constructing driveways and sidewalks and doing grading. Hazard’s contracts usually included both site preparation and building construction, but occasionally only site work was involved.

In 1989, Valley Parkway hired Hazard to ready an Escondido site for commercial subdivision construction. The contract included no building construction, but was confined to site preparation, including surveying, cutting and filling, soils testing, rough and fine grading,…