Rockwell Bros. & Co. v. Keatley

• Decision Date: 19 October 1915
• Docket Number: Case Number: 5263
• Citation: 152 P. 449,51 Okla. 783,1915 OK 830
• Parties: ROCKWELL BROS. & CO. v. KEATLEY et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1915 OK 830

152 P. 449

51 Okla. 783

ROCKWELL BROS. & CO. v. KEATLEY et al.

Case Number: 5263

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: October 19, 1915

Syllabus

¶0 SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS--Public Buildings--Contractor's Bond--Debts Covered. A person, loaning money to a contractor to pay for labor and material furnished to such contractor, is not protected by the provisions of a bond conditioned that the contractor shall pay all indebtedness incurred for labor and material furnished in the construction of a public building.

Error from District Court, Bryan County; Summers Hardy, Judge.

Action by Rockwell Bros. & Co., a corporation, against J. S. Keatley and another. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

Kyle & Newman and Hatchett & Semple, for plaintiff in error.

V. B. Hayes, W. E. Utterback, and John T. Suggs, for defendants in error.

RITTENHOUSE, C.

¶1 J.S. Keatley entered into a contract with school district No. 5 of Bryan county, Okla., to provide material and labor for the erection and completion of a high school building in said district, and in pursuance of such contract executed a bond signed by the Southwestern Surety Insurance Company, as surety, running to the State of Oklahoma, whereby the parties thereto bound themselves in the penal sum of $ 19,444.44, conditioned that if the said J. S. Keatley should pay all indebtedness incurred for labor and material furnished in the erection of said building in accordance with the contract, then the obligation should become null and void, otherwise to remain in full force and effect. This action was instituted for the purpose of recovering $ 2,660.65, money advanced to J. S. Keatley for the payment of labor and material used in the construction of said building. It is admitted that J. S. Keatley had performed a part of his contract and became financially embarrassed, and thereupon entered into an oral contract with the plaintiff by which the plaintiff was to furnish the money to pay for labor and material. The auditor and general manager of the plaintiff corporation for Oklahoma testified that he entered into a contract, as follows:

"For instance, he shipped his brick, his common building brick were all shipped to him and shipped in his name and contracted for by him, and I charged him a profit of $ 1 per thousand. The face brick was also shipped by another party from another state, and I charged him a profit of $ 36 a thousand by agreement. All of the sand and gravel were shipped to him and billed to him, and the profit was about 10 cents per ton weight. That about covers the material part of it. The heater plant and other articles where

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