Scholfield, Judge.

Douglas Whitley and his company, Douglas Northwest, Inc., appeal an adverse decision following a bench trial in their action to set aside a lien placed on their construction project by Bill O’Brien & Sons Construction, Inc. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Facts

1. Parties.

This case arose from a series of disputes between the parties involved in the construction of Admiralty Terrace, a residential apartment complex located in south Snohomish County. The parties bringing this appeal are (1) Douglas Northwest, Inc., a Washington corporation that was the original general contractor for the project; (2) Douglas Northwest’s principal, Douglas Whitley, who owned the Admiralty Terrace site during the period of construction; (3) Merton Gribble, chief executive officer of Douglas Northwest and construction manager for the Admiralty Terrace project; (4) Gribble’s putative wife, Nancy Gribble....

The respondent in this action is Bill O’Brien & Sons Construction, Inc. (hereinafter O’Brien), defendant below, a Washington corporation, whose president and principal is William O’Brien. O’Brien was a subcontractor on the Admiralty Terrace construction project.

2. Background. ...

Although a soils report had been completed for the property in 1980, it was not mentioned in any of the plans....

On October 29, 1984, Douglas Whitley, principal of Douglas Northwest, Inc., executed a joint venture agreement with Gribble for the development and sale of the Admiralty Terrace site. Under the agreement, Whitley ... agreed to operate as the general contractor for the development of Admiralty Terrace, a $6 million residential apartment project to be located on the site. The agreement provided that Whitley would be the owner of the Admiralty Terrace project, with Gribble being responsible for managing and overseeing its development.

William O’Brien, principal owner of Bill O’Brien & Sons Construction, Inc., learned of the Admiralty Terrace project in November 1984. Prior to submitting a bid for the project, O’Brien met with Gribble, briefly looked over the plans, and accompanied him to the Admiralty Terrace site. While at the site, O’Brien asked Gribble if there was a soils report on the job, and Gribble said “No. ... I am the soils report.” Gribble told O’Brien that he had owned the property for a number of years and that the ground on the site was excellent. Gribble stated that he had cleared the site and done some grading work on it, and that all the soil on the site was good material.

3. Grading Contract.

Construction work to develop the Admiralty Terrace project involved two areas. The first was the “on site” area composed of land owned by Douglas Whitley and upon which the project was to be built. The second area was the adjoining unimproved county right of way.

Using the engineering and design plans prepared by Western Surveyors, O’Brien began to prepare a bid for the project. O’Brien originally included in the bid a contingency for costs associated with bringing imported materials onto the site. Gribble, however, wanted reductions in the bid price, so O’Brien removed cost calculations for any use of imported materials. Gribble told O’Brien that all soil on the site was good material, and that only on-site material was to be used in the project. ...

On December 20, 1984, O’Brien entered into a subcontractor’s agreement with Douglas Northwest to perform all clearing, grubbing, grading, compaction, retention pond, guardrail and storm drainage work on the project. The written contract was supplied by Gribble on behalf of Douglas Northwest and stated a contract price of $124,000. Because a payment and performance bond was required on the project by Douglas Northwest, O’Brien submitted the contract to its bonding company. The bonding company would not issue a bond based upon the contract, however, and insisted instead that an AIA contract form be used that better protected the rights of O’Brien and the bonding company. Pursuant to this request, the AIA subcontract for the clearing, grubbing and storm sewer work (grading contract) was substituted for and superseded the previous contract between the parties. ...

4. Sewer and Water Utilities Contract.

O’Brien also submitted a bid to Douglas Northwest for the installation of sewer and water utilities on the project. O’Brien’s bid was accepted, and by agreement dated February 21, 1985, O’Brien and Douglas Northwest executed a subcontract for the performance of sewer and water work. This contract was on a form supplied by Gribble and required O’Brien to obtain a performance and payment bond. As with the grading contract, however, no bond would issue on Gribble’s form. The bonding agents again insisted that an AIA subcontract be used to better protect O’Brien’s and the bonding company’s rights. The AIA subcontract (utilities contract) for the sewer and water work was substituted for and superseded the previous subcontract agreement between the parties. ... The contract price for O’Brien’s completion of the work was $200,000.

5. Plan Approval and Commencement of Work. ...

[I]n January [1985], O’Brien attempted to utilize on-site soils to fill and compact the detention pond and road embankment areas. The soils were overly moist, however, and had to be dug out and replaced. The embankment was redone in March, but compaction tests indicated that the native soils contained excess moisture and would not compact to the levels required by the specifications. It was not until the late spring of 1985 that, on the third attempt, O’Brien managed to attain the proper compaction levels in these areas. ...

On March 8, 1985, by resolution of its directors, Douglas Northwest, Inc., was dropped as the general contractor for the Admiralty Terrace project and replaced by Douglas Whitley, who succeeded to all rights and obligations of Douglas Northwest, Inc. ...

While talking with an employee of another subcontractor in the summer of 1985, O’Brien first learned that a soils report had been prepared for the site. O’Brien asked Gribble about the report, but Gribble stated that he was unaware of it. O’Brien ultimately went to the offices of Douglas Northwest and was provided with a copy of the report by one of the secretaries. The report, a 30-page document prepared ... in May 1980 by Earth Consultants, Inc., indicated that the site contained fine-grained soils that would make grading operations difficult in wet weather. The report also indicated that the excessive amount of “fines” present in the soil would make compaction difficult when the soil was wet.

O’Brien did not substantially complete the work under the grading contract until August 28, 1985, and did not substantially complete the utilities contract work until September 12, 1985. This constituted a delay of 51 calendar days on the grading contract and 97 calendar days on the utilities contract.

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7. Procedural History.

In May 1986, O’Brien filed a lien for $150,000 against the project. O’Brien later increased the amount requested under the lien to $246,094.91, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. In June of 1986, Douglas Northwest commenced this action to set aside the lien. O’Brien counterclaimed under theories of breach of contract and lien foreclosure, as well as other theories not relevant to this appeal. O’Brien sought to recover (1) the unpaid contract balance, (2) compensation for additional work performed, (3) compensation for the increased costs attributable to misrepresentation of the soils on the site, and (4) compensation for standby equipment, extended home office overhead, extended field operation costs, and labor and equipment inefficiency.

A bench trial began on June 20, 1989. On September 27, 1989, the trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law, and subsequently entered judgment for O’Brien in the amount of $324,481.17 against the following parties, jointly and severally: Douglas Northwest, Inc., Douglas Whitley, and Merton and Nancy Gribble, husband and wife. The court ordered $282,400.92 of the judgment to be joint and several as against the current owners of the Admiralty Terrace project....

Appellants Douglas Northwest, Inc., Merton Gribble, Nancy Gribble and Douglas Whitley (hereinafter DNW) raise several issues in this appeal. DNW contends that the trial court erred in: ... (2) awarding damages based on O’Brien’s soils misrepresentation claim....

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Misrepresentation of soils conditions

The trial court found that Gribble had represented to O’Brien that the soils on the site were all good materials suitable for grading, filling and other construction work to be performed by O’Brien in the winter of 1984-85. The court further found that Gribble had instructed O’Brien to use only native soils on the project and had told him that there was no soils report for the site. The soils report, the court stated, was a material document that identified the unsuitability of the soils with which O’Brien was to be working.

By not fully apprising O’Brien of the nature of the soils on the site and the existence of the soils report, the court found that Gribble, Whitley and Douglas Northwest had misrepresented the soil conditions and willfully withheld material information of which they had superior knowledge. The court found that O’Brien was required to fill and compact the unsuitable soils two extra times, incurring excess manpower and equipment costs of $20,183.95....

DNW first asserts that because the contract contained no clause relieving O’Brien of unanticipated soil conditions, O’Brien had the burden of proving each element of fraud by clear, cogent and convincing evidence. DNW argues that O’Brien did not prove that Gribble misrepresented the soil conditions, and further did not demonstrate that he had a right to rely on an assumption that the soils were suitable.

One claiming misrepresentation must prove nine elements: (1) representation of an existing fact; (2) materiality; (3) falsity; (4) speaker’s knowledge of its falsity; (5) speaker’s intention that it shall be acted upon by the plaintiff; (6) plaintiff’s ignorance of falsity; (7) reliance; (8) right to rely; and (9) damages. Hoffer v. State, 110 Wn. 2d 415, 425, 755 P.2d 781 (1988), aff’d on rehearing, 113 Wn. 2d 148, 776 P.2d 963 (1989). Each element of fraud is a material issue to be resolved and must be proven by clear, cogent and convincing evidence, Howell v. Kraft, 10 Wn. App. 266, 271, 517 P.2d 203 (1973), which is the equivalent of saying that the ultimate fact in issue must be shown to be “highly probable”. In re Sego, 82 Wn. 2d 736, 739, 513 P.2d 831 (1973). The standard of review on appeal is whether there is substantial evidence to support the findings in light of the “highly probable” test. In re Estate of Eubank, 50 Wn. App. 611, 618, 749 P.2d 691 (1988).

DNW argues that Gribble’s statement that the on-site soil was all good for winter excavation was not false, and that O’Brien admitted during trial that good soils were present. O’Brien’s testimony on this issue was based on information contained in the soils report. The report, O’Brien testified, indicated that out of the 32 test borings conducted on the site, two revealed the presence of suitable soils. O’Brien further testified that, with the information contained in the soils report, he could have successfully built a particular road on the project just once and it would have worked.

In our opinion, the fact that a fraction of the on-site materials were suitable does nothing to detract from the overall falsity of Gribble’s representations. Gribble stated that the on-site materials were all good for the work to be performed, that the ground was excellent, and that no problems would be encountered. Gribble’s statements amounted to an assurance that the entire site contained soils suitable for O’Brien’s work. Such representations varied materially from the true conditions and from the results of the soils report, which indicated that only a small percentage of the soil could be worked with in wet conditions.

DNW next contends that O’Brien did not demonstrate that he had a right to rely on Gribble’s representations as to soil quality. DNW contends that O’Brien had previously worked with glacial till and knew that such soils were present in south Snohomish County, but made no effort to conduct even a cursory sampling of the soil on the site. DNW presented several witnesses who stated that glacial till was quite common in the area. DNW thus contends that O’Brien’s assumptions as to the quality of the soil in the area were not justifiable, and that he did not have a right to rely on Gribble’s representations.

We disagree. While O’Brien may have had general knowledge of the soil conditions in south Snohomish County, this does not mean he had reason to know of the soil composition of a particular site. Local soil conditions in the area may well vary, as DNW’s expert conceded. Nor was O’Brien required to conduct independent tests to confirm the validity of Gribble’s representations. A party to whom a positive, distinct and definite representation has been made is entitled to rely on that representation and need not make further inquiry concerning the particular facts involved. See, e.g., Rummer v. Throop, 38 Wn. 2d 624, 633-34, 231 P.2d 313 (1951) (plaintiff, despite having heard rumors to contrary, had right to rely on seller’s representation that presence of magnesium dust on farm would not affect crops); Jenness v. Moses Lk. Dev. Co., 39 Wn. 2d 151, 158, 234 P.2d 865 (1951) (plaintiffs entitled to rely on tavern seller’s representations as to net profit of business where facts peculiarly within speaker’s knowledge); North Pac. Plywood, Inc. v. Access Rd. Builders, Inc., 29 Wn. App. 228, 628 P.2d 482 (contract assignee had right to rely on assignor’s representation as to type of road to be built although assignee did not check publicly available specifications), review denied, 96 Wn. 2d 1002 (1981).

The court’s analysis in Plywood is instructive. In that case, Walch Logging accepted assignment of a United States Forest Service road building contract from Access Road Builders. Plywood at 230. Prior to the assignment, and in response to his specific inquiry, Mike Walch, Walch Logging’s president, was told by Access general manager John Maestas that the road to be built was an “old style” road. Plywood at 230. Walch asked Maestas for the plan and profile, a component of the specifications, but was not provided with these documents until after the contract was assigned. Plywood at 233. After discovering that he had in fact contracted to construct a considerably more expensive “new style” road, Walch asserted a claim against Access for fraud. Plywood at 231.

Among the defenses raised by Access was that Walch had no right to rely on the representation of Maestas because Walch could have examined the publicly available project specifications. Plywood at 233. The court rejected this argument. Since Walch was told that the road was to be of old style construction and had not received the plans he had requested, he had a right to rely on the representations of Maestas and had no duty to investigate further. Plywood at 233.

The present case is quite similar to Plywood. Before O’Brien submitted his bid, Gribble told him that the on-site materials were suitable for the work to be performed and that no imported fill was to be used. In response to O’Brien’s specific inquiry, Gribble stated that there was no soils report for the site. Having been told the soils were suitable and that there was no soils report, O’Brien was entitled to rely on Gribble’s representations in entering the contract and had no duty to investigate further.

The trial court’s findings do not include a specific finding that O’Brien had a right to rely and did rely on Gribble’s representations.

The evidence on this issue is clearly sufficient to support findings of a right to rely and reliance in fact. It is implicit from the findings entered by the trial court that it did find both a right to rely and actual reliance. ...

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Conclusion

The trial court’s judgment is affirmed with the exception of the following: [issues unrelated to the misrepresentation of soils conditions]. The judgment in all other respects is affirmed.

Judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Pekelis and Agid, JJ., concur.

Reconsideration denied February 18, 1992.