## Facts

- Bean Dredging Company conducted dredging operations in the Calcasieu River/Ship Channel.
- Bean negligently struck and damaged an underwater natural-gas pipeline owned by Texaco.
- Texaco supplied natural gas to PPG Industries under contract for PPG’s manufacturing plant operations.
- The pipeline damage interrupted Texaco’s ability to deliver gas to PPG.
- PPG purchased substitute fuel at higher prices and sought to recover the increased fuel costs from Bean.
- PPG had no ownership or other proprietary interest in the pipeline; its interest was solely contractual.

## Issues

1. Whether a negligent tortfeasor who damages property (a pipeline) is liable in tort to a third-party contract customer for purely economic loss caused by interruption of the owner’s contractual performance.
2. Whether PPG’s increased fuel costs fall within the scope of the duty imposed on dredging contractors to avoid negligently damaging pipelines under Louisiana Civil Code article 2315.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed dismissal of PPG’s suit on Bean’s exception of no cause of action.
- The court held PPG could not recover purely economic losses flowing from negligent damage to property in which PPG had no proprietary interest.
- The court concluded PPG’s alleged damages were outside the scope of the duty owed by Bean not to negligently damage pipelines.

## Legal Principles

- Louisiana Civil Code article 2315 liability is limited by a duty-risk analysis; not every “damage to another” is compensable.
- A tort duty to avoid negligent property damage generally protects the property owner and closely connected proprietary interests, not remote economic expectations.
- Purely economic loss suffered by a third party due to negligent interference with another’s contractual performance is not recoverable absent a proprietary interest in the damaged property.
- Scope-of-duty limits may be justified by policy concerns about disproportionate and indeterminate liability to numerous economically affected parties.

## Conclusion

The court held that a dredging contractor’s duty not to negligently damage a pipeline does not extend to protecting a pipeline owner’s contract customer from indirect economic losses caused by service interruption, so PPG stated no tort cause of action for its increased fuel costs.


PPG Indus., Inc. v. Bean Dredging Co., 447 So. 2d 1058 (La. 1984)