United States v. Wyckoff Pipe Creosoting Co
| Decision Date | 24 May 1926 |
| Docket Number | No. 282,282 |
| Citation | 46 S.Ct. 503,271 U.S. 263,70 L.Ed. 938 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. WYCKOFF PIPE & CREOSOTING CO., Inc |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. William J. Donovan, and Herman J. Galloway, Asst. Attys. Gen., and Edward D. Hays, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.
Mr. Harvey D. Jacob, of Washington, D. C., for appellee.
The Wyckoff Pipe & Creosoting Company, Inc., contracted with the United States, in December, 1917, to lay creosoted wood block floors in Navy Yard buildings at Norfolk, Va., furnishing all necessary labor and materials. On a part of the job the contractor was to begin the work immediately after delivery of a copy of the contract. This part was to be completed within 30 days thereafter. On other parts, work was to be deferred until such time as the government was ready to proceed. These parts were to be finished within 43 days from the dates on which they were begun. The flooring was to be set in a concrete base which was to be laid promptly by the government. The contractor prepared itself immediately to perform the contract. Among other things, it purchased the lumber and creosote oil needed for the job. Long delays by the government in furnishing the con- crete bases prevented performance by the contractor. Thus more than two years elapsed before the work was completed. The contractor was without fault.
The government's delays confessedly caused the contractor some loss. For the loss so suffered the government was confessedly liable. It made payment at the fixed contract rate of $2.26 per square yard-and paid an additional amount, also provided by the contract, equal to 50 per cent. of the estimated increase in the labor cost. It paid nothing otherwise on account of the damages caused by its delay. To recover compensation for the loss suffered, this suit on the contract was brought in the Court of Claims in January, 1923. That court assessed the damages at $10,122.99, and for that amount it entered judgment, without an opinion, on June 2, 1924. 59 Ct. Cl. 980. The case is here on appeal under section 242 of the Judicial Code (Comp. St. § 1219). The only question presented is whether there was error in the measure of damages adopted.
The findings of fact recite that the contractor, in reserving its right to claim damages for extras by reason of the long unanticipated delay, had enumerated as items of the proposed claim extra labor on account of the advance in the scale of wages, extra expense by reason of renewal premiums on surety company bonds, additional freight rates on sand and other material, additional cost of sand, additional cost of creosote oil, storage, insurance, and carrying charges 'on a large stock of lumber purchased for the account of your contract and carried in our yard for a space of between one and two years.' The findings also recite that the record does not disclose by items the amount of extra expense incurred by the contractor by reason of the lengthy delay in the performance of the work. The court made no finding or estimate of the loss so incurred. It found merely that the increase in the prevailing market price of lumber from the time that used was bought by the contractor until it was actually employed on the job was $6,021.23; that the increase in the prevailing market price of the creosote oil required from the time it was purchased for the job until it actually was so used amounted to $712.59; that the reasonable value of the contract work per square yard at the time it was actually performed was, for a part $2.68, for a part $2.98, and for the rest $3.28; and that the reasonable...
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