In June 1993 a Travis County homeowner signed a contract with a pool company to build a swimming pool at her house, payable in four installments. As the work neared completion, court records show, she noticed several defects — most significantly a two-inch crack at the deep end.
She told the company she would withhold the last installment until the defects were fixed. It did not respond, and she hired a professional engineer to inspect the pool and report on its condition.
The company’s answer was to file a mechanic’s lien for that final installment — a claim against the property the pool sat on. She sued for breach of contract, breach of express and implied warranties, and to quiet title to get the lien off her house.
What each side claimed
Her engineer listed seven possible causes of the cracking and testified the list was exhaustive: the mix of the gunite, the concrete-like substance lining the pool; the mix of the plaster over it; excessive chlorine in the gunite; where the plaster went; where the steel shell went and how it sat in the gunite; and failure to build to plans. All seven, he said, were under the company’s exclusive control…