City of Bridgeport v. T. A. Scott Co.

Decision Date05 March 1920
Citation94 Conn. 461,109 A. 162
CourtConnecticut Supreme Court
PartiesCITY OF BRIDGEPORT v. T. A. SCOTT CO., Inc., et al.

Case Reserved from Superior Court, Fairfield County; Frank D Haines, Judge.

Action by the City of Bridgeport against the T. A. Scott Company Incorporated, and another. On reservation for the advice of the Supreme Court of Errors. Judgment for plaintiff advised.

Action to recover damages for the refusal of the defendant contractor to repair or make good the injury to a seawall which it had contracted to build for the plaintiff caused by severe storm pending the completion of the wall, brought to the superior court in Fairfield county, where a demurrer to the complaint was overruled and one to the second paragraph of the answer sustained (Haines, J.) and later, upon an agreed statement of facts, the cause was reserved for the advice of this court. Judgment for plaintiff advised.

January 26, 1917, the plaintiff and the defendant Scott Company entered into a written contract whereby the latter agreed to construct a sea wall 3,925 feet in length in accordance with plans and specifications annexed to and made a part of the contract. The plans and specifications showed that the work contracted for covered excavation for the construction prescribed, the building of a masonry wall the entire length of such construction, the placing of large quantities of riprap on the seaward side of the wall, filling in behind it, the driving of piles, and the use of both plain and reinforced concrete. The work was to be finished and ready for acceptance on or before September 1, 1917. The consideration named in the contract was one to be determined upon the basis of specified unit prices for the various kinds of work involved, to wit, for each cubic yard of excavation each cubic yard of fill, each cubic yard of cement masonry each cubic yard of reinforced concrete, each cubic yard of riprap, each pile driven, etc. The contract provided that the city engineer should each month, as the construction progressed, make an appropriate estimate of the value of the labor performed upon and materials incorporated into it, and that, whenever the amount of such estimate or estimates for labor and materials furnished since the last previous payment exceeded $500, 85 per cent. thereof should be paid to the contractor on or before the 15th day of the month following. It further provided that the engineer should as soon as practicable after the completion of the work contracted for make a final estimate of its amount and value, and that the city should within 30 days thereafter pay to the contractor the entire sum so found, less the amount of previous payments and the sums entitled to be retained in accordance with the provisions of the contract.

The fifteenth paragraph of the specifications embodied in the contract reads as follows:

" The contractor will be held responsible for all loss and damage to work or material caused by rain, wind, and fire, or any other cause, and shall replace any such damaged work or material. He will also be held responsible for all loss caused by difficulties or obstructions met with during construction and for all claims based upon patents or patent rights."

The defendant the New Amsterdam Casualty Company is the surety on a bond for $42,600 which the Scott Company, as principal, gave to the plaintiff for the faithful performance of the former's contract.

Upon the execution of the contract the Scott Company entered upon the prosecution of the work, and on the 24th day of October, 1917, had proceeded so far as that the masonry wall was in position and completed save that approximately 390 feet of it had been only partially constructed and some of the coping of the remainder was not in place. The 390 feet had been left incomplete and to be finished in the following spring by agreement with the city, and for prudential reasons which possess no present importance. The unfinished coping would, in the ordinary course of events, have been in position in two more working days. At that time less than one-third of the riprap was in place, and in front of no section of the wall was it completely so. No filling had then been done. On that day a great and unusual storm arose and beat against the unprotected wall with such violence that 1,700 feet of it was greatly damaged.

The plaintiff thereupon demanded that the Scott Company repair the damage thus done and restore the work at its own expense. This is refused and still refuses to do, claiming that it is under no obligation to do so. The cost of such repair and restoration would be $46,000.

Advice is asked in answer to the three following questions:

" (1) Whether the T. A. Scott Company, Incorporated, under its said contract was under legal obligation to repair said wall at its own expense.
" (2) Whether said contract was an entire contract obligating the T. A. Scott Company, Incorporated, under section 15 of the specifications, to repair all damage to said wall at its own expense until the entire work contemplated by said contract had been completed and accepted by the city.
" (3) Whether upon the facts stated the T. A. Scott Company, Incorporated, under section 15 of the specifications, was bound to repair said damage to said wall at its own expense."

William H. Comley, Jr., of Bridgeport, for plaintiff.

Walter C. Noyes, of New York City, for defendants.

PRENTICE, C.J.

Counsel for the defendants concede that their clients' defense to this action is to be found, if found it is, in the divisibility of the contract between the Scott Company and the city. If that contract enbraced one entire undertaking, it is apparent that the provision contained in paragraph 15 of the specifications embodied in the...

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6 cases
  • Taylor v. Lounsbury-Soule Co.
    • United States
    • Connecticut Supreme Court
    • 11 Abril 1927
    ... ... necessary to put the stock on the market, and furnished him ... with an office in New York City, letter heads, and circulars ... describing the stock. In October, 1923, the defendant, by its ... severable but entire. Bridgeport v. Scott Co., 94 ... Conn. 461, 466, 109 A. 162, and cases cited. If the defendant ... was not ... ...
  • Beit v. Beit.
    • United States
    • Connecticut Supreme Court
    • 3 Marzo 1949
    ...matter of the intent of the parties, determined by a fair construction of all the provisions of the contract. City of Bridgeport v. T. A. Scott Co., 94 Conn. 461, 465, 109 A. 162; Trenton Potteries Co. v. Oliphant, 58 N.J.Eq. 507, 517, 43 A. 723, 46 L.R.A. 255, 78 Am.St.Rep. 612. There is u......
  • Udo Peist v. C. M. Richmond
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • 3 Octubre 1923
    ... ... Ga. 184; Chamberlin v. Booth, 135 Ga. 719, ... 70 S.E. 569, 35 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1223; Bridgeport v ... Scott Co., 94 Conn. 461, 109 A. 162; ... Butterfield v. Byron, 153 Mass. 517, 27 ... N.E. 667, 12 L. R. A. 571, 25 A. S. R. 654; ... McConnell v. Corona City Water Co., 149 ... Cal. 60, 85 P. 929, 8 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1171 ...           The ... ...
  • Charles H. Dresser & Son, Inc. v. Allemannia Fire Ins. Co. of City of Pittsburgh, Pa.
    • United States
    • Connecticut Supreme Court
    • 12 Diciembre 1924
    ... ... Woodford a party in each action. Baurer v. Devenis, ... 99 Conn. 203, 216, 121 A. 566. See, also, Bridgeport v ... Scott Co., 94 Conn. 461, 466, 109 A. 162. In No. 1012 ... there is no error ... In Nos ... 1005, 1007, 1014, and 1016, there ... ...
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