City of Chicago v. Duffy

117 Ill. App. 261, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 224
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 29, 1904
DocketGen. No. 10,738
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 117 Ill. App. 261 (City of Chicago v. Duffy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Chicago v. Duffy, 117 Ill. App. 261, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 224 (Ill. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Baker delivered

the opinion of the court.

The appellee, Joseph J. Duffy, brought against the appellant, the City of Chicago, an action in assumpsit, and upon the trial by the court recovered a judgment for $301,376.08. The action was brought upon a contract between the parties whereby the plaintiff agreed to construct for the defendant section 2 of a certain water tunnel. A contract between the defendant and Frederick 0. Weir and others for the construction of section 3 of the same tunnel is set out in City of Chicago v. McKechney et al., 205 Ill. 372, and as the general provisions of the two contracts and of the specifications therein mentioned are identical, for such provisions reference will be had to the report of that case. The special provisions of this contract are that the plaintiff shall “ build and construct a water tunnel and shaft from a shaft to be located at the west end of the proposed ten-foot water tunnel situated in the neighborhood of North Green street near Grand avenue, thence to a terminus at some point west of Rockwell street to be determined upon by the Commissioner of Public Works, said tunnel and shaft to be built and constructed according to the terms, conditions and directions set forth in the contract and specifications thereto attached and made a part of this contract, said tunnel being designated in the specifications as second section 8 feet internal diameter.” The provisions of the contract as to the compensation to be paid for such work are as follows :

“ Shaft 10 feet internal diameter, $30.00 per lineal foot; Tunnel in earth 8 feet internal diameter, $13.55 per lineal foot; Tunnel in rock 8 feet internal diameter, $17.75 per lineal foot; Rock excavation over and above cost of lineal foot of tunnel or shaft, $10.00 per cubic yard; Cast iron in covers, etc., 6c per pound.” Counsel for appellee state in their brief, and we take their statement as correct, that the amount of plaintiff’s recovery is made up by the following items:

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The contention of appellant is that the trial court erred in allowing to plaintiff each item that went to make up the amount of his recovery, and further erred in refusing to allow defendant credits as over-payments for certain sums of money which had been paid to the plaintiff during the progress of the work.

We will, so far as possible, consider together the respective contentions of the parties which relate to the same subject-matter.

1. Back Masonry in Tunnel in Rook. Before July, 1897, plaintiff excavated 4,707 lineal feet of tunnel in rock. A controversy arose between the parties as to his compensation for the rock thus taken out, and he brought a suit against the city which went to the Supreme Court—Chicago v. Duffy, 179 Ill. 447. In that case it was held that under the contract he was entitled to compensation for the rock necessarily taken out in excavating the tunnel in rock at the rate of ten dollars per cubic yard. A judgment in his favor for the rock taken out up to that time for $204,328.52 was affirmed. He was entitled under the contract to be paid but eighty-five per cent, the remaining fifteen per cent being retained until the completion of the work. $204,328.52 is eighty-five per cent of $240,386.50, so that his recovery implied a finding that he had taken out 24,038.65 cubic yards of rock in excavating the 4,707 feet of tunnel in rock. Work on the tunnel was suspended from July, 1897, to April, 1899, when it was resumed and the tunnel completed in April, 1900. Plaintiff was paid the contract price of $17.75 per lineal foot for 9,958.05 lineal feet of tunnel in rock. Of this amount 4,707 feet was excavated before July, 1897, and 5,251 after April, 1899.

The trial court allowed plaintiff as a part of his recovery $105,165 for 10,516.5 cubic yards of back masonry in the' 5,251 feet of tunnel in rock excavated after April, 1899, and appellant contends that the court erred in making such allowance.

The specifications provide that “ in every instance all spaces left between the outside of the regular brickwork and the excavation shall be filled with solid brick masonry but no allowance shall be made for such additional work or material.” The masonry placed between the outside of the brickwork and the excavation is what in this case is called back masonry.

In City of Chicago v. Weir, 165 Ill. 582, it appeared that the contractors had claimed and the city had paid them $5,930.35 for back masonry and it was held that they were not entitled to anything for back masonry under the plain provisions of the specifications and that the money so paid the plaintiffs “amounted to nothing more than an overpayment which might properly be deducted from whatever sum was due the plaintiffs for any portions of the work.”

It is not now contended that the plaintiff is, according to the terms of the contract, entitled to be paid anything for back masonry, but the contention of appellee is that the inspectors employed by the city who were in the immediate charge and control of the work done after April, 1899, were incompetent; that through and by reason of the erroneous and improper orders and directions given by them to the employees of the plaintiff the tunnel was not excavated upon the line given by the city engineer but was excavated first upon one side and then upon the other of that line through the greater part of its length; that after the tunnel was so excavated the city engineer ordered the plaintiff to straighten it; that he did straighten it and in doing so was compelled to take out and did take out 10,516.5 cubic yards of rock, which at $10 per yard amounted to $105,165.

The contract provided that “ all of the material used in said work, manner, time and place of doing said work, together with all things therewith connected must be in each and every particular satisfactory to the Commissioner of Public Works. * * * That all of the work shall be executed in the best and most workmanlike manner.”

The contract further provided that if the contractor should fail to proceed with the work in accordance with the requirements and conditions of the agreement that the city by its Commissioner of Public Works should have full right and authority to take the work out of his bands and complete the same, and further that the contractor should perform all of said work under the immediate direction and superintendence of the Commissioner of Public Works of the City of Chicago. The inspectors employed by the city gave to the employees of the plaintiff the lines and grades of the tunnel and drew circles on the face of the rock within which such employees were directed to drill the holes for blasting.

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Bluebook (online)
117 Ill. App. 261, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-chicago-v-duffy-illappct-1904.