CHARLESTON – A former state Supreme Court justice has sued a concrete contractor alleging subpar work.
Margaret Workman filed her complaint December 15 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Chad Haynes doing business as Haynes Concrete.
According to the complaint, Workman received a text message from Haynes on September 30, 2021, with an estimate for the labor on a job removing old concrete and replacing it with new concrete for her home driveway. The $16,180 estimate didn’t include the cost of the actual concrete material, according to the complaint.
The following month, Workman and Haynes entered into a contract for the job. Haynes began working on it October 12, 2021. He arranged for Wells Group and Hanson Group to provide the concrete, and Workman made a check payable to Wells Group for $2,660 for the material. She says Haynes paid Hanson Group directly and received reimbursement from her for that.
Thus, Workman notes, she did not have a contract directly with the concrete providers.
She says Haynes indicated there were cost overruns, and he added additional costs for labor on a copy of the original contract. She says she did not sign the document but was given a copy of it.
When Haynes demanded final payment, Workman says he hadn’t finished the job. She says he hadn’t removed some of the wooden supports installed for concrete pouring, and she says he refused to return to clear the drain lines between slabs of concrete. She says she paid a third party to remove the wood supports.
In addition, Workman says she entered into an oral contract with Haynes to pressure-wash the older concrete with a special machine to bleach it so it more closely matched the new concrete in color and to mortar a stacked stone wall at the entry of the driveway.
“Defendant used a regular pressure-washer with no bleach attachment and the old concrete did not lighten at all as a result of such pressure washing, and the mortar deteriorated within six-eight months after its installation,” the complaint states. “The concrete began cracking very soon after the performance of the work, and by summer 2022, it began completely falling apart in portions of the driveway.
“The defendant failed to respond to messages left for him by the plaintiff requesting remediation of the problems.”
Workman says she contacted Haynes in January 2023 again to no avail. She says he finally responded in June 2023 and said he would repair or re-do the problem areas. She says some parts of the driveway have deteriorated so much it can’t be driven over.
“Defendant has repeatedly given assurances that he was coming to correct the problem areas and re-pour concrete where it was disrupted and where it had developed substantial cracking,” the complaint states. “Despite the plaintiff’s forbearing from legal action on such promises, the defendant has failed to keep any of his numerous promises to repair, repour and/or otherwise ameliorate the improperly and negligently installed concrete.”
Workman seeks special damages of $25,407.95 as well as damages for annoyance, inconvenience, property damage and the cost of temporary remediation of the concrete issues. She also seeks court costs and fees for the litigation as well as other damages.
She is representing herself. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Carrie Webster.
Workman was the first woman elected to statewide office in West Virginia. She served a total of 30 years in the judiciary, including two terms on the state Supreme Court that included five stints as chief justice and seven years as a circuit court judge in Kanawha County.
A native of Charleston, Workman earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from West Virginia University in 1969, followed by her law degree in 1974. She served as assistant counsel to the majority on the U.S. Senate Public Works Committee before returning to West Virginia to work as a law clerk for the 13th Judicial Circuit and later established a private practice in Charleston. She was appointed to the Kanawha Circuit Court in 1981 by then-Gov. Jay Rockefeller, becoming the second female circuit court judge in the state.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-1099