Penn Air Control Inc v. Bilbro Construction Company, Inc.

I. Background

25 In 2012, the Department of the Navy awarded a prime contract to Bilbro 26 Construction Company (Bilbro) to renovate the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning 27 (HVAC) system in Watkins Hall, a building located on the Naval base in Monterey, 28 California. Bilbro, a general contractor, hired Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects, Inc. (FPBA) to be the designer of record for the project and to provide architectural designs. FPBA in turn hired Sparling, Inc. (Sparling), an acoustical expert. Bilbro hired Alpha Mechanical (Alpha) as the mechanical contractor, and Alpha subcontracted with Shadpour Consulting Engineers, Inc. (SCE) to design the HVAC system, which Alpha installed. The Navy imposed strict noise requirements on the project because Watkins Hall contained classrooms. When the new HVAC system was first turned on, 23 of the rooms in Watkins Hall exceeded the Navy’s noise limits and the Navy refused to accept the work. Bilbro then hired Sparling directly to assess the noise issue and provide recommendations to bring the HVAC system into compliance with the Navy’s noise requirements. Sparling provided …