Kiely Corp. v. Gibson

• Decision Date: 04 December 1964
• Citation: 231 Cal.App.2d 39,41 Cal.Rptr. 559
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: KIELY CORPORATION, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. H. C. GIBSON, Defendant and Appellant. Civ. 28273.

Page 559

41 Cal.Rptr. 559

231 Cal.App.2d 39

KIELY CORPORATION, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. H. C. GIBSON, Defendant and Appellant.

Civ. 28273.

District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1, California.

Dec. 4, 1964.

Hearing Denied Jan. 27, 1965.

Wallace & Wallace and Allan W. Wallace, Los Angeles, for appellant.

Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges, James W. Baldwin, and Robert K. Worrell, Los Angeles, for respondent.

LILLIE, Justice.

Plaintiff sued for damages for breach of a construction subcontract; judgment was entered in favor of the defendant. Thereafter plaintiff moved for a new trial; the motion was granted upon grounds of the insufficiency of the evidence to justify the decision and that the judgment was 'against law.' Defendant appeals from the resulting order.

The subcontract was for demolition, site clearance and other work connected with the construction of an elementary school in Torrance for which project plaintiff had been awarded the general contract. Bids were invited, and the low bid was eventually telephoned to plaintiff by one Andy Thomas on behalf of 'Anderson Grading.' When plaintiff's project manager proceeded to secure Anderson's license number for inclusion in a contract then being drafted, he was given a number by the licensing agency which it had assigned to defendant Gibson. Another contract, the one here in suit, was then prepared by plaintiff and forwarded to Thomas. It was returned in executed form and signed: 'H. C. Gibson, by Andy Thomas, Partner.' Although the law so provided (Gov't.Code, § 4104), ¹ the above change admittedly was not communicated to the awarding authority--in this case, the Torrance Unified School District; nor was the district's consent to such change ever sought. Thus, in answer to written interrogatories, plaintiff declared that the name of the only subcontractor submitted to the public authority was 'Anderson Grading, Garden Grove.'

Thomas, it appears, was married to a cousin of the defendant. He knew Gibson was a contractor, had been in his office in Brawley and had taken some of Gibson's letterhead stationery. He and an associate having commenced work on the Torrance job, on October 18 of 1960, a propress demand payment was forwarded to plaintiff on one of Gibson's letterheads; the demand ostensibly bore defendant's signature. Plaintiff refused payment because, among other things, no bond had been posted by Thomas, and material suppliers were also asking to be paid. When work on the subcontract stopped, plaintiff's manager insisted that Givson perform. The latter refused, stating that he had no contract. Subsequently, after being importuned by materialmen, Gibson asked plaintiff by letter to pay these suppliers. In response to this request, checks were sent to Gibson in the total amount of $15,059.15 and payable jointly to him and the suppliers. Defendant endorsed each check and sent it on to the other payee. He testified that he received nothing from the proceeds thereof.

On December 28, 1960, Gibson for the first time visited the job site. He again advised plaintiff's project manager that he had no contract with plaintiff but offered to do the rest of the job for the unexpended balance of the contract price if plaintiff would give him a contract in his own name. Plaintiff elected to rely on the contract signed by Thomas, its project manager having testified that he was told by defendant, upon receipt of the contract in suit, that Thomas had authority to sign for him. (This was denied by defendant.)

Thereafter plaintiff finished the job. The damages sought represent the defference between the cost thereof and the contract price.

The court made findings of fact favorable to defendant from which it drew the conclusion of law that 'plaintiff having listed ANDERSON GRADING as a demolition and site clearance subcontractor on the Victor Elementary School Job, and never having sought permission to change such subscontractor, plaintiff is estopped by reason thereof from claiming against defendant Gibson or anyone except the principals of Anderson Grading.' It further concluded that at no time did any contract exist between plaintiff and Gibson. Implicit in the above conclusions is the determination that plaintiff's failure to comply with the applicable provisions of the statute then governing (Gov't.Code, § 4104, supra) barred its right to recovery. Unless the evidence would warrant a judgment in favor of the moving party, it is error to grant a new trial. (Ellis v. City of Los Angeles, 167 Cal.App.2d 180, 186, 334 P.2d 37.) The evidence in such regard being undisputed, we must decide whether plaintiff's noncompliance with the law is dispositive of this appeal.

'[I]t has been repeatedly declared in this state that 'a contract made contrary to the terms of a law designed for the protection of the public and prescribing a penalty for the violation thereof is illeged and void and no action may be brought to enforce such contract'. (Citation.)' (Loving & Evans v. Blick, 33 Cal.2d 603, 607, 204 P.2d 23, 25.) Former section 4104 provides in pertinent part that, 'No general contractor whose bid is accepted shall, without the consent of the awarding authority, either: (a) Substitute any person as subcontractor in place of the subcontractor designated in the original bid. (b) Permit any such subcontract to be assigned or transferred or allow it to be performed by anyone other than the original subcontractor listed in the bid. * * *' Former section 4106 (renumbered § 4110 and amended by Stats. 1963, chapt. 2125, § 11) imposes a penalty for the violation of the enactment just quoted: 'A general contractor violating any of the provisions of this chapter violates his contract and the awarding authority may cancel the contract. After any such violation, the general contractor shall be penalized to the extent of twenty per cent (20%) of the amount of the subcontract involved. * * *'

We must now determine whether the imposition of the above penalty was for the purpose of regulating such transactions for the protection of the public--and not simply as a means of raising revenue. (Cf. Wood v. Krepps, 168 Cal. 382, 386-387, 143 P. 691, L.R.A.1915B, 851.) In Klose v. Sequoia Union High School Dist., 118 Cal.App.2d 636, 641, 258 P.2d 515, 518, the court had occasion to consider the subject matter of the instant legislation. It noted that the subject statutes 'appear in the chapter of the public works law dealing with 'Subletting and Subcontracting' which are regulatory provisions.' Continuing, 'None of those sections is aimed at conferring rights on the subcontractors, but are all aimed at protecting the public and the awarding authority.' Earlier, the court declared that, 'The basic public policy of the sections involved, and of the sections related to them, is not to grant rights to a subcontractor, but is to assure the reliability of the subcontractors by requiring an initial check by the awarding authority with the assistance of its technical staff, and then to be sure that no subcontractor will be substituted without the approval of the awarding authority, given, as it was in this case, only after a reliability check by the technical staff.' (p. 640, 258 P.2d p. 517.) See also Fred J. Early, Jr. Co. v. County Sanitation Dist., 214 Cal.App.2d 505, 508, 29 Cal.Rptr. 633, 636, in which the court said: 'The [Klose] opinion does state that the basic public policy of the sections involved, and related sections, is to give the awarding authority a right to check upon the reliability of subcontractors named in the bid and of anyone sought to be substituted for them.' In the present case, of course, the awarding authority had no possible opportunity to check upon the reliabilty of defendant Gibson as a subcontractor for the work in question since his name was never submitted by the plaintiff general contractor.

On the other hand, plaintiff also relies upon the Klose decision. It emphasizes the statement above quoted that the basic public policy of the subject sections 'is not to grant rights to a...