Contractor Denies Damaging Electrical Conduit While Excavating for AT&T

AT&T contractor Deviney Construction “vehemently” denies allegations it damaged an underground electrical conduit while excavating near a commercial retail building that Loboda Properties owns in Natchitoches, Louisiana (see 2401080004), said Deviney’s answer Friday (docket 1:24-cv-00022) in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Alexandria. Insurer Travelers Property Casualty Co. made the claim on behalf of Loboda, its client. The damages weren’t caused by Deviney’s “acts or omissions,” said the answer. Devoney “at all times” complied with the Louisiana Underground Utilities and Facilities Damage Prevention Law and relied “on the markings set forth by the utility companies operating utility lines in the subject area,” it said. Any injuries or damages the plaintiff sustained “were caused by intervening or superseding events, factors, occurrences, or conditions” that Deviney didn’t cause and for which it isn’t liable, it said. If it’s determined that the plaintiff indeed suffered damages, Deviney asserts that the plaintiff “failed to mitigate" its alleged damages or failed "to take reasonable steps to minimize or prevent the damages purportedly sustained in the subject incident as is required by law,” said the answer. In the “further alternative,” Deviney avers that if the plaintiff suffered any injuries, which are denied, those injuries were caused by the “acts, carelessness, inattention to duty, omissions, and/or conduct of third persons" for whose fault and/or negligence Deviney isn’t liable, it said.