Fitzgerald v. Benner

120 Ill. App. 447, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 678
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 1, 1905
DocketGen. No. 11,918
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 120 Ill. App. 447 (Fitzgerald v. Benner) 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
Fitzgerald v. Benner, 120 Ill. App. 447, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 678 (Ill. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Brown

delivered the opinion of the court.

This appeal is from a judgment in favor of appellees against appellant in the Circuit Court of Cook County for $6,000. The judgment was upon a Verdict of a jury for that amount in an action of assumpsit. The suit was upon a building contract between Fitzgerald on the one side and Benner and Kent on the other, by which Benner and Kent agreed to erect, build and complete the iron work for a flat building to belong to Fitzgerald, to be erected at the corner of 26th and State streets in Chicago. The price to be paid by Fitzgerald to Benner and Kent was fixed by the contract at a certain sum for castings a ton, another for beams per ton, and at other sums per pound for punching, copjdng and riveting, and for anchors, steel plates, stirrups and straps. A certain sum was also named as' the price per square foot for Hyatt lights.

The contract was dated August 22, 1892. Between that date and May 27, 1893, material and labor, which at the prices named would amount to $22,908.63, were furnished by the appellees, Benner and Kent. November 23, 1892, $5,000 was paid them, December 17, 1892, $5,000, and February 21, 1893, $6,500, leaving, according to the contention of the appellees, $6,408.63 due.

It is not denied by the appellant that the labor and material claimed to have been furnished by the appellees were so furnished, but it is contended by him that the appellees have, under their contract, no claim against the appellant for any amount, unless the architect named in the contract has so certified, and that the architect refused so to certify as to this balance claimed, or any part thereof; that the architect was the ultimate and sole arbitrator of any dispute between the parties to the contract, and has decided in good faith that the appellant owes the appellees nothing, and therefore the appellees should have recovered nothing in this suit. Further appellant contends that without reference to the lack of the architect’s certificate, the verdict is excessive because it is shown by the preponderance of the evidence that there are due from the appellees to appellant liquidated damages for delay stipulated for in the contract, to an amount which must in any event reduce the claim of the appellees under the contract to a sum much less than the verdict and judgment against him, if it does not obliterate it. To this deduction of stipulated damages for delay should be added another, it is claimed, for twenty defective columns furnished by appellees and condemned by the architect, but not removed or replaced, and the two deductions together, it is urged, even if the smallest sum for which there is ground in the evidence is allowed for the damages for delay, justify the refusal of a certificate by the architect and demonstrate the injustice of any judgment against the appellant.

It appears that these questions were submitted to the jury by the trial court under instructions concerning them asked by the appellant and given by the court, that were, as will be hereinafter noted, even more favorable to the appellant than seems to us justifiable.

The jury were by the instructions told that the fact that appellant has occupied since November 1, 1893, the building in question, does not prove that he accepted the work of the appellees or conceded that it was properly performed, and that if a dispute arose between the appellant and appellees as to whether appellees had completed the iron work specified in said contract, within the time specified in said contract, and the jury believed from the evidence that the architect honestly and in good faith decided that appellees had failed so to complete the contract, and that by reason of said fact there was no money owing to the appellees by the appellant, then the verdict must be for the appellant, whether the architect decided correctly or not; because, under the contract, both parties had agreed that the decision of the architect when honestly made should be final and binding upon the parties. In various forms the jury were instructed that it was the duty of the architect, Warren, to decide whether the appellees had completed the iron work -within the time specified, and if not, what damages at the rate of §50 per day, as stipulated in the contract, were due to the appellant for such delay; and that if Warren had honestly and in good faith decided that because of such damages or because the appellees had failed to complete the work in accordance with the contract and specifications, no money was due to the appellees, the decision was binding and the jury must give it effect by finding for the defendant.

Further, the jury were instructed that, if they believed from the evidence that the appellees had failed to prove by the preponderance of the evidence that the architect, Warren, fraudulently, and in collusion with the appellant refused to issue a final certificate to the appellees, that their verdict should be for the appellant.

There was conflicting evidence before the jury as to whether the appellees were guilty of any delay, not the result of “causes beyond their control,” namely, “the delays of other contractors and rainy weather.”

There was conflicting evidence as to whether any complaint was made of the character' of certain columns furnished by appellees, and there was a very distinct and irreconcilable clash of testimony in reference to the conversations and transactions from which the want of good faith on the part of the architect was to be inferred or negatived.

Under these circumstances, it is not for us to pass on the relative credibility of witnesses, no one of whom is impeached, and unless there is such a clear and decided preponderance of evidence as to leave no substantial doubt in our minds—such a preponderance as does not appear in this record—we ought not to disturb the verdict of the jury or hold that the assignments of error which depend on the inconsistency of such verdict with the weight of the evidence, are well taken.

We are confined, therefore, in this case, to the consideration of the alleged errors in the trial below which resulted in the verdict in question.

It is claimed by appellant that there are such errors, (a) in the giving of each of the four instructions, which were asked by the appellees and which are numbered 16, 17, 18 and 19; (b)' in the admission and exclusion of evidence; and (c) in improper remarks made by the trial judge and by appellees’ counsel without the interference of the court.

Instruction 16 is this:

“ The court instructs the jury that in this case he has not expressed, and does not in any of these instructions express, any opinion on the facts of the case, nor upon the credibility or want of credibility of any witness. The facts must be decided by the jury from the testimony which is received in open court. Offered testimony to which objection was sustained, or which was stricken out by order of the court, is not before the jury and should not be considered in arriving at your verdict. Statements of counsel for either side, if any, which are unsupported by the testimony, or which are irrelevant to this case, should not be considered.
The instructions given you by the court are to be considered as a series.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
120 Ill. App. 447, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fitzgerald-v-benner-illappct-1905.