{"id":905534,"date":"2026-04-07T16:26:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=905534"},"modified":"2026-04-07T16:26:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:26:28","slug":"reasonable-care-call-before-you-dig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/reasonable-care-call-before-you-dig\/","title":{"rendered":"Call Before You Dig: Company Faces Tort Claims for Not Calling First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Katelyn Carson and John Mark Goodman | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/2026\/04\/call-before-you-dig-company-faces-tort-claims-for-not-calling-first\/?utm_source=Bradley+Arant+Boult+Cummings+LLP+-+BuildSmart&amp;utm_campaign=38efde1e5a-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_b504caf31b-38efde1e5a-78863422\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">BuildSmart<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We all have legal duties. Some arise from contracts that we choose to enter. Others are spelled out in statutes or regulations. Still others are imposed by the common law. One of the most basic common law duties is the duty to exercise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/tag\/duty-of-reasonable-care\/\">reasonable care<\/a> to avoid injury to others. What constitutes reasonable care varies depending on the specific facts and circumstances of each case.\u00a0 It is often an issue that a jury must decide only after a trial where both sides have an opportunity to present their side of the case. As one oil and gas company learned last week, reasonable care may require you to call before you dig (see<em>\u00a0Northern Natural Gas Co. v. American Warrior, Inc.<\/em>, Case No. 25-1120, 2026 WL 828722 (D. Kansas Mar. 26, 2026)).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In that case, the defendant drilled a guy-line anchor in the vicinity of a gas pipeline without calling the pipeline owner first. Upon learning of the drilling activities, the pipeline operator shut down the gas flow within the pipeline and inspected it for damage. While the anchor had luckily missed the pipeline (by 10 inches), the pipeline operator nonetheless sued to recover costs associated with reducing flow and inspecting the pipe for damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defendant sought to dismiss the claim on various grounds, including that the applicable statute, the Kansas Underground Utility Prevention Act, only required notification by parties engaged in excavation activities, and it expressly exempts activities related to oil production. The court agreed that the statute did not apply to the defendant\u2019s activities but nonetheless held that whether the defendant complied with its common law duty to exercise reasonable care was a question for the jury. The defendant must now defend a lawsuit that it may have otherwise avoided if it had heeded the familiar refrain: Call Before You Dig!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A copy of the court\u2019s opinion is located\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/07917404533.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 801.641.8304, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Republished with permission. The article, \u201cCall Before You Dig: Company Faces Tort Claims for Not Calling First\u201d was originally published on BuildSmart by Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP. Copyright 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Katelyn Carson and John Mark Goodman | BuildSmart We all have legal duties. Some arise from contracts that we choose to enter. Others are spelled out in statutes or regulations. Still others are imposed by the common law. One of the most basic common law duties is the duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/reasonable-care-call-before-you-dig\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Call Before You Dig: Company Faces Tort Claims for Not Calling First<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8782],"tags":[9895,10831,361],"class_list":["post-905534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-injury","tag-advise-consult","tag-duty-of-reasonable-care","tag-personal-injury","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Call Before You Dig: Company Faces Tort Claims for Not Calling First - Advise &amp; 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