Board of Education v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

253 N.E.2d 663, 115 Ill. App. 2d 416, 1969 Ill. App. LEXIS 1521
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided October 15, 1969·No. Gen. 52,574·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE McNAMARA

delivered the opinion of the court.

Board of Education, School District 90, Cook County, Illinois, for the use and benefit of Fenestra, Inc., brought this action against United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company and Anko Construction, Inc., on a performance bond to recover a balance due of $4,985.25 for materials and labor furnished in the construction of an addition to a school building. Anko counterclaimed against Fenestra, alleging that the latter had breached its subcontract agreement with Anko, thereby causing Anko to be relieved of its duties as general contractor on the project and to lose its expected profits. The jury returned a verdict of $4,985.25 in favor of the School District for the benefit of Fenestra on the complaint, and a verdict of $55,000 for Anko on its counterclaim against Fenestra. The trial judge entered judgments on the verdict, and denied the post-trial motions of Fenestra. Only Fenestra appeals from the judgment on the counterclaim and the denial of its post-trial motions. Fenestra raised several issues in its brief, but at oral argument its counsel stated that its only points on appeal were that the verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence and that the damages were speculative.

Anko was the general contractor on the school addition, and Fenestra as subcontractor was to provide a standard curtain aluminum wall, aluminum windows and a steel sheet roof deck. After testimony was received concerning Fenestra’s suit against Anko, the following is a summary of the evidence received on the counterclaim.

Anthony Antoniou, secretary of Anko, testified on behalf of Anko that he had formed the company with George Kouros in 1954. Originally engaged in design work, the company became involved in commercial construction, and by 1958, had built several schools. In January, 1958, he wrote to the architects, Cone and Dornbusch, requesting an opportunity to bid on a proposed addition to Roosevelt Junior High School. Anko signed a contract in May, 1958, and after approval by the architects, the contract was accepted by the Board of Education District 90 in June, 1958. Anko was to be paid about $240,000. Estimates of the total costs were $196,000, and the estimated profit to Anko was to be $44,000. Anko was to finish the job in 175 working days. After signing the contract, Anko selected the critical contracts, those which had to be let immediately. Fenestra was such a subcontractor, and this was the first contract let by Anko. The architects, in their plans, specified Fenestra as a subcontractor; Anko did not have a choice as to this subcontract. Immediately after the contract had been accepted by the School District, the witness contacted agents of Fenestra, and discussed delivery dates. Fenestra was to deliver the wall and windows September 1, 1958 and erect them by October 1. Fenestra officials said there would be no problem in delivering the wall in September. This was a critical part of the contract. The Fenestra curtain wall consisted of at least two-thirds of the outside of the building. The wall should have been delivered and erected in 70 working days. After the site had been established, Anko broke ground about June 10 or 15; the excavation and foundation proceeded normally. Within 70 working days Anko had the roof steel up, and was ready to receive the wall and deck from Fenestra.

During this period, Antoniou complained to Fenestra’s agents by phone that he had not received shop drawings, and he did not receive the drawings until late September. In November, 1958, along with a representative of the architects, he went to Fenestra’s offices in Philadelphia, where the curtain wall was to be constructed. He was told that Fenestra was so overwhelmed with orders that the curtain wall would not go into construction until the latter part of January, 1959, and would not be ready until February. Efforts to get an earlier construction failed. The curtain wall was delivered on 3 dates; mid-January, February and March or April. Because of a defect in the first delivery of curtain wall delivered in January, the glazing cracked. After the defect was discovered, new parts of the wall had to be obtained, and the wall was reerected in late March or April. Fenestra’s promise to deliver the windows in January was not kept. There were 3 deliveries of windows; one in January, one in March, and the final one in August, 1959. The roof decking for the main building was not delivered until late November, and was erected in December, 1958. The roof decking for the corridor was delivered in the summer of 1959. Anko started to receive complaints in late 1958; prior to that, its relations with the school board and the architects were good. In January, 1959, Anko received complaints from the school board that the building was too cold. Anko had enclosed it as best it could in order to work inside, but the roofing could not go on because of the lack of metal decking. The project was to be completed in January, 1959; it was not completed until the fall because of the late delivery of the windows and curtain wall. Anko completed about 90 to 95 percent of the work. There was no penalty clause in the contract between Anko and Fenestra. The witness was unable to explain why the roofing could not be put up for lack of the curtain wall unless he could see the detailed blueprints. As of October, 1958 the structure was ready to receive the curtain wall and decking. Anko spent $9,000 to temporarily enclose the building in December. The school board was not charged for this extra cost, because Anko expected to sue Fenestra for that cost. There was some delay prior to September, but it was not substantial. There was also some delay caused by other subcontractors.

George Kouros testified in behalf of Anko that he ran' the office for Anko until June, 1959, at which time he took over as field supervisor of the project in question. The reason for the delay in completing construction was Fenestra’s delay in delivery, which was a minimum of four or five months. The contract price was approximately $240,900, and Anko’s anticipated profit was about 15 percent of that price. That would be $36,000. In addition to that amount, Anko expected a profit of $6,000 to $7,000 for subcontract work it did on the job. Thus the total expected profit was $42,000 to $44,000.

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Board of Education v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 253 N.E.2d 663, 115 Ill. App. 2d 416, 1969 Ill. App. LEXIS 1521 (Ill. Ct. App. 1969).

253 N.E.2d 663 (Board of Education v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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