Electric Supply Co. v. City of Muskogee

1935 OK 235, 42 P.2d 140, 171 Okla. 130, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 111
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 12, 1935
DocketNo. 24858.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1935 OK 235 (Electric Supply Co. v. City of Muskogee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Electric Supply Co. v. City of Muskogee, 1935 OK 235, 42 P.2d 140, 171 Okla. 130, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 111 (Okla. 1935).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The plaintiff in this cause sues the city of Muskogee, a municipal corporation, and E. H. Shoults, alleging that a contract had been entered into by the municipal corporation and E H. Shoults whereby the said E. II. Shoults had been awarded the contract in the furnishing of •material and doing certain parts of said work, to wit, the installation of outlets for ‘phone, power and light, including $1,500 for the purchase and changing of lighting fixtures, also extending the underground service out of the building, all for the sum of $4,740.

The plaintiff alleges that a certain contract was made between the said parlies, and contends that under the terms of that contract with Shoults the plaintiff was entitled to the benefit of that contract, and was entitled to sue the city under and by virtue thereof; contends that no bond was made as by law provided; in other words, that the bond that was made was not a legal bond, and that, as the municipality failed to execute a proper bond, and that, as under the law the bond was made for the protection of the lienholder and materialman, therefore, the plaintiff could maintain an action against the municipality under the original contract with the contract- or.

This court, in the case of Bushnell v. Haynes, 56 Okla. 592, 156 P. 343, states:

“One who contracts with a public officer to construct a public improvement to cost more than $100 has no right to proceed with the execution of his contract until he has given a bond, conditioned as required by statute, in a sum not less than the .sum total of the contract, indemnifying against loss persons who furnish labor and material for the construction of such public improvement.

“One who sells material to such a public contractor is charged with knowledge of the statutory duty of the contractor to give such a bond as is required by the statute, and if he sells him material before such a bond has been given, he does so at his peril, and if he sustains a loss, he cannot recover damages from the officer who failed to require such a bond, because the proximate cause thereof is his own negligence in not ascertaining for himself whether the statutory requirements in that respect had' been complied with, and not that of the contracting officer, because if the contracting officer failed to require the giving of such a bond by the express terms of the contract, the law stepped in and by implication made that requirement one of the conditions precedent of the contract.”

And in the body of the opinion, this court says:

“All men are charged with knowledge of the law, and men who sell material to public improvement contractors are charged *131 with knowledge of that condition which the law implies as being a part of the contract of every such contractor; and if they sell material to such contractors before their contracts have been made effective by the filing of the bond which the law requires, they do so at their own peril, and if they sustain losses thereby, the proximate cause thereof is their own negligence, and not that of the contracting officers, because if the contracting officers have neglected to write into the contract in express terms that which the law says shall be there, the law, by its own operation puts it there by implication.”

Following this decision, the Supreme Court of this state in American Sash & Door Co. v. McGregor, 129 Okla. 261, 264 P. 602, uses the following language:

“Section 7486, O. O. S. 1921, makes it the duty of public officials who enter into a contract as here, the object of which is to make public improvements or erect public buildings, to require the contractor to give a bond to the state of Oklahoma that the contractor shall pay all indebtedness incurred for labor and .materials, such a bond, when taken, does inure to the- benefit of materialman, such as the plaintiff. But in the instant case, for reasons not apparent from the record, there was no such bond required and no such bond given. We deem it not amiss in passing to say that in all such cases the public policy as evidently intended by the statute would be best subserved by the officers of the municipality requiring the execution of two bonds, one of which should run to the municipality conditioned as the bond in the instant ease; the other, the bond required by the statute above set out, conditioned as by the statute required that payment would Ee made by the contractor for all labor and material furnished. But, in the absence of a bond so conditioned, * * * the court cannot make a new contract or write into a contract which is plain and unambiguous, conditions which would impose obligations upon the surety beyond and in excess of the liability assumed by it. The plaintiff in dealing with the contractor under a contract made with the school district should have known that. no liability attached to the school district or to the board for its failure to require the contractor to give the statutory bond.”

The court in the case of Wilson v. Nelson, 54 Okla. 457, 153 P. 1179, says that in order for third parties to recover upon an agreement between others to which they are not priyy, the contract must be made expressly for his benefit. It must not only be intended to secure some benefit to him, but there must be a promise legally enforceable.

The plaintiff in error in the case at bar contends that the city of Muskogee did not require a bond to be executed in conformity to the statute; that the obligee in the bond was left blank, and that the bond was made for $6 less than the amount of the contract, and that therefore there was no statutory bond. If there was no bond, as contended by the plaintiff in error, then the first part of this opinion applies. The plaintiff in error contends that there was a provision in the contract between the city of Muskogee and the contractor that the city would pay the contractor, subject to the proof of account for the material used and the work done, and proper showing made of the payment of all outstanding accounts, and that therefore all such bonds were made for the benefit of the material-man; that the city would be liable to the plaintiff' in error for the work done and material used by it if it violated the terms of its contract with the contractor in paying the said contractor before it had knowledge of the payment of all claims of materialmen against the contractor for work and material used in the construction of said improvement.

The Supreme Court of this state, in the case of Metropolitian Casualty Insurance Co., of New York v. United Brick & Tile Co., 167 Okla. 402, 29 P. (2d) 771, says:

“Defendant surety company lays particular stress upon the fact that the specifications provided that the city could withhold payment of any of the funds and apply same, in payment of claims for labor and material due on the job if bills on the contract were not paid. The contract provides: ‘No moneys, payable under contract or any part thereof, shall become due and payable, if the commission so elects, until the contractor shall satisfy the said commission that he has fully settled or paid for all materials and equipment used in or on the work and labor done in connection therewith, and the commission, if it so elects, may pay any or all such bills, wholly or in part, and deduct the amount or amounts so paid from any partial or final estimate.’

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Boren v. Thompson & Associates
2000 OK 3 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2000)
Drummond v. Johnson
1982 OK 37 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1982)
Lynn v. Rainey
400 P.2d 805 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1965)
American Casualty Company v. Town of Shattuck, Okl.
228 F. Supp. 834 (W.D. Oklahoma, 1964)
Gibbs v. Trinity Universal Insurance Company
1958 OK 147 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1958)
Neal v. Neal
250 F.2d 885 (Tenth Circuit, 1957)
Fite v. Van Antwerp
1948 OK 263 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1948)
Traders General Ins. Co. v. Sand Springs Home
1944 OK 93 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1944)
Robbins v. City of Sheffield
188 So. 874 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1935 OK 235, 42 P.2d 140, 171 Okla. 130, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/electric-supply-co-v-city-of-muskogee-okla-1935.