Engineering Sales, Inc. v. A-1 Roofing & Sheet Metal Works, Inc.

246 So. 2d 242, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 6201
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 15, 1971
DocketNo. 8276
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 246 So. 2d 242 (Engineering Sales, Inc. v. A-1 Roofing & Sheet Metal Works, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Engineering Sales, Inc. v. A-1 Roofing & Sheet Metal Works, Inc., 246 So. 2d 242, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 6201 (La. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

SARTAIN, Judge.

Engineering Sales, Inc., an Alabama corporation, brought this action on a contract to recover the purchase price of certain pipe which it fabricated and sold to A-l Roofing & Sheet Metal Works, Inc., a Louisiana corporation. Engineering Sales also prayed for reasonable attorney fees incurred, as provided in the contract in the event of default by the purchaser, and also for the sum of $54.00 paid in wages to workers who loaded the [243]*243pipe on defendant’s truck. A-l Roofing defended on the grounds that it did not authorize or approve two change orders in the contract and that the pipe delivered was defective to the extent that it was unfit for the use and purpose intended and, as a result, A-l was required to spend an amount more than the contract price in labor and materials to cure the defects and should be entitled to a reduction in the price.

The original contract price was $7,250.-00. The first change order added $443.89 and the second change order deducted $776.00, resulting in the total amount of $6,917.89, the sum claimed as the purchase price herein.

The trial judge granted judgment in favor of plaintiff Engineering Sales and against defendant A-l Roofing for the contract price of $6,917.89 and for attorney fees of $750.00. Plaintiff’s claim for $54.00 paid to workers for loading the pipe on defendant’s truck was not mentioned in the judgment. Since Engineering Sales did not answer this appeal, neither that claim nor the request made in brief for increased attorney fees is properly before us.

We affirm the result reached by the trial judge in awarding plaintiff the purchase price under the contract as modified by the change orders.

The record reveals that A-l Roofing contracted to install for Bechtel Corporation a dust collection system according to plans drawn by Bechtel’s engineer. In the first part of February, 1968, A-l Roofing realized that it alone could not fabricate the quantity of pipe needed for the job within the allotted time and began negotiations by means of several phone calls with Engineering Sales for the fabrication of some of the pipe. Mr. Wayne Thompson, president of A-l Roofing, Mr. M. K. Ferguson, his foreman, and Mr. Roland Cedarholm, president of Engineering Sales were all involved in these preliminary talks and Mr. Ferguson had made a trip to Alabama to discuss the plans. A-l Roofing mailed the drawings by Bechtel Corporation’s engineer to Engineering Sales and from those “take offs” Engineering Sales made an estimate of the job and mailed a contract proposal dated March 6, 1968, to A-l Roofing and to the attention of M. K. Ferguson with the following job description:

“We are quoting as follows on the Dust Collection Systems # 1, # 2, & # 3 and the Urea Line.
We have used the take off you sent us and are quoting only pipe, pipe flanges and elbows (30°, 45°, 60°, & 90°) as shown. We are quoting these materials 6" Dia. and larger out of black iron welded 10" dia. and smaller 16 gage, longer than 10" — 14 Gage. Each elbow has a flange at each end and each length of pipe has a flange at each end.
OUR PRICE FOR THE ABOVE ITEMS IS:
SEVEN THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED FIFTY AND NO/100 . . . $7,250.00
F.O.B. Gadsden, Alabama
We have not included taper joints branch takeoffs, ‘Y’ joints, machine connections, gaskets, bolts.
Before fabrication it would be necessary that we have exact lengths of each duct run (flange to flange).”

The standard form contract on which the above was typed in contained a clause providing that the contract "may be modified by written agreement only”.

This proposal was signed by Mr. Thompson for A-l Roofing on March 9 and returned to Mr. Cedarholm, who signed for Engineering Sales on March 13, and then, according to its terms, the contract came into existence.

Thereafter, Mr. Ferguson, A-l Roofing’s foreman, communicated to Engineering Sales some job modifications given to [244]*244him by Bechtel Corporation and two written change orders were made and mailed to A-l Roofing both directed to the attention of M. K. Ferguson. The first, dated March 14, did not specify the changes but included both deductions and additions. The second, dated March 19 and directed to Mr. Ferguson, began as follows:

“CONFIRMING OUR CONVERSATION OF THIS MORNING FOR DELETING 12' OF 16" DUCT AND THE 3' 6" LINES FROM THE DUCT SYSTEM.
YOU CAN DEDUCT $776.00.
H: * * ”

Mr. Ferguson went to Alabama to insure that progress was being made on the job and to clarify any uncertainties that might arise in interpreting the “take offs” or drawings obtained from Bechtel Corporation. It was understood by both parties from the beginning that time was of the essence in this contract, because A-l Roofing had to meet certain deadlines under its contract with Bechtel Corporation. Engineering Sales was to have completed and shipped part of the pipe within two weeks and the rest within three more weeks. It is not disputed that these time requirements were met, although Mr. Thompson contended that A-l Roofing was damaged by having to compensate for the deletions contained in Change Order # 2, which Mr. Ferguson, he said, had no power to authorize. However, at no time' prior to the first shipment is there any evidence that Mr. Thompson informed Engineering Sales that all contract modifications had to be approved by him. It is argued that this fact was obvious because Mr. Thompson signed the original contract on behalf of A-l Roofing whereas Mr. Ferguson only witnessed that signature. Engineering Sales responds that Mr. Ferguson had the apparent authority to bind A-l Roofing because he had been the original and primary contact man both before and after the formation of the contract, all of their correspondence had been sent to A-l Roofing without objection through Mr. Ferguson, he had visited the Alabama plant to review the drawings and to inspect the pipe fabrication and, in sum, he appeared to be the only representative of A-l Roofing with a complete knowledge of the needs of Bechtel and A-l Roofing as they related to the contract with Engineering Sales. We do not think that Engineering Sales can be faulted for relying on Mr. Ferguson’s instructions to modify the original contract under these circumstances. The change orders were received by Mr. Thompson at A-l Roofing in the middle of March, and yet he admitted taking no steps to clarify his position until April 2, after the first shipment of pipe had been received on March 31. On April 2, he said he made a phone call to Engineering Sales and told Mr. Cedarholm that Mr. Ferguson had no authority to approve a change in the contract and further that the pipe received was defective. No one from Engineering Sales testified that he remembered any such phone call or complaints. The telephone records show only that a station-to-station call was placed from A-l Roofing’s office on that date.

The second and final shipment of pipe was received on April 5, but it was not until April 10 that Mr. Thompson said he wrote a letter to Engineering Sales about the change orders and the fact that A-l Roofing was having to rework some of the pipe before installing it. No one from Engineering Sales remembered receiving that letter.

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Bluebook (online)
246 So. 2d 242, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 6201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/engineering-sales-inc-v-a-1-roofing-sheet-metal-works-inc-lactapp-1971.