paul, in partnership with abbot homes, inc., began developing Crosswoods subdivision. savid, a licensed engineer, was retained to do the engineerina and contracting work for the subdivision. there was no written contract between david and the developers; rather, he worked by verbal agreement. paul and abbot later dissolvec their partnership, each taking a portion of the property and planned to complete his work on Paul's property, as well, after finishing Abbot's. david still had no written contract with either paul or abbot. david subsequently worked on paul's property until it became apparent that paul had obtained the help of another engineer for the project. at that time david sent paul a bill for $18256\mathrm{.}00.$ paul did not pay the bill