General Electric Co. v. Brady Electrical Co.

317 N.E.2d 91, 2 Mass. App. Ct. 522, 1974 Mass. App. LEXIS 671
CourtMassachusetts Appeals Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 317 N.E.2d 91 (General Electric Co. v. Brady Electrical Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Appeals Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
General Electric Co. v. Brady Electrical Co., 317 N.E.2d 91, 2 Mass. App. Ct. 522, 1974 Mass. App. LEXIS 671 (Mass. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

Armstrong, J.

This bill in equity was brought in the Superior Court on February 26, 1968, to recover amounts [523]*523allegedly owed the plaintiff for electrical materials used in the construction of the North Terminal Building and Tower Restaurant at Logan International Airport. The defendants named in the plaintiff’s amended bill included Brady Electrical Co. Inc. (Brady), the electrical subcontractor for the project, Joseph Rugo, Inc. (Rugo), the general contractor, Maryland Casualty Company (Maryland), the surety on Rugo’s payment bond, and the Massachusetts Port Authority (the Authority), which owns the airport and commissioned the project.

Brady thereafter intervened as a cross-claimant against Rugo and Maryland to recover the unpaid balance under its subcontract. Only the latter claim is involved in this appeal, which was taken by Rugo and Maryland from that portion of the final decree declaring them jointly and severally indebted to Brady in the sum of $119,414.94, with interest thereon from April 22, 1968, to the date of the final decree.

The trial judge arrived at the figure of $119,414.94 in the following manner. The original contract price under Brady’s electrical subcontract with Rugo was $598,000. To this the judge added $95,501.26 for extra work performed by Brady. Of that total, $91,629.29 was for extra work performed pursuant to written change orders approved by the Authority, $432.69 was for extra work ordered by Rugo in a letter dated May 23, 1967, apparently not the subject of any change order issued by the Authority, and the remaining $3,439.28 was for work performed by reason of oral" orders by Rugo. This brought the total indebtedness to $693,501.26 (i.e., $598,000 plus $95,501.26). The judge reduced this total by $571,384 which he found to have been previously paid Brady by Rugo, and by an additional $2,702.32 which he found owing to Rugo because of back charges against Brady — producing a total net indebtedness of $119,414.94 (i.e., $693,501.26 minus $571,384 minus $2,702.32).

[524]*524Rugo and Maryland were charged with interest on that amount from April 22, 1968, because the judge found that Brady had filed a sworn statement of its claim on that date pursuant to G. L. c. 149, § 29.

Rugo and Maryland contend that the $91,629.29 found to be due Brady by reason of written change orders was incorrectly computed, that the terms of the subcontract precluded Brady’s recovery of any amount on the basis of oral orders, and that the evidence required a finding that Rugo had made payments to Brady in excess of the $571,384 found by the judge. They also contend that Brady is not entitled to interest from April 22, 1968, or to any recovery whatever from Maryland, because of an alleged defect in the statement of claim filed by Brady on that date. Since we have before us the judge’s findings of fact and a report of the evidence, all questions of law, fact and discretion are open for our decision. From the evidence we can find facts not expressly found by the judge. If convinced that he was plainly wrong, we can find facts contrary to his findings. Juergens v. Venture Capital Corp. 1 Mass. App. Ct. 274 (1973).

1. The written change orders. The judge’s findings do not include an enumeration of the written change orders on which he based his figure of $91,629.29 as the amount owed Brady on account thereof. Brady’s brief offers little information in this regard other than the bare assertion that forty-five of the exhibits provide “ample evidence” to support the judge’s finding, and that “ [i]t is obvious” that Rugo arrived at a lower figure “by deducting items the trial judge found not properly deductible . . ..” After puzzling through the exhibits cited by Brady (as well as one evidently overlooked by Brady authorizing extra work in the amount of $322.53), and discounting certain disputed exhibits relied upon by Rugo and Maryland in reduction of Brady’s claim, we get a total of only $91,561.59. By no combination of the available figures have we been able to arrive at the $91,629.29 found by the judge. We conclude that the latter finding was plainly wrong.

[525]*525There remains the question whether even the lesser total of $91,561.59 can be sustained. To the extent that Brady’s claim and the reduction therein asserted by Rugo and Maryland are based on documentary evidence, we are in the same position to make findings as the trial judge. Colbert v. Hennessey, 351 Mass. 131, 134 (1966). Almost all of the relevant evidence falls into that category. As to the comparatively small amount of relevant evidence which consisted of oral testimony, we assume (because of his ultimate finding) that the judge gave maximum weight to that favoring Brady and little or no weight to that favoring Rugo and Maryland, and we must do the same. See Colbert v. Hennessey, supra.

The brief submitted by Rugo and Maryland contains a tabulation of the written change orders introduced in evidence and other exhibits bearing on the amount owed Brady. This tabulation, with the exception of a few minor typographical errors1 not affecting the total, gives an accurate portrayal of virtually all the sums which Brady could conceivably claim by reason of those change orders and all the sums by which Rugo and Maryland contend that claim should be reduced, and provides a useful starting point for our examination of the evidence.

The total amount owed Brady under the analysis of Rugo and Maryland is $85,067.15. They contend, however, that this figure includes the $432.69 for extra work which was ordered (independently of any formal change order introduced in evidence) by Rugo in its letter dated May 23, 1967, and which the judge separately credited to Brady. We agree with this contention as there was no evidence of more than one credit to Brady in the above amount. Brady does not appear to argue to the contrary. The deduction of the $432.69 from the [526]*526$85,067.15 admittedly owed Brady on account of written orders therefore reduces the amount admittedly owed by reason of formal change orders to $84,634.46.

The discrepancy between that admitted liability of $84,634.46 and the $91,561.59 which we arrived at by adding up the amounts of the change orders relied upon by Brady arises from four contested items. One such item relates to change order 104, which instructed Brady to add $4,851.69 to its contract price. It is clear from the correspondence underlying change order 104 that this was an error, that the amount intended to be credited to Brady under that change order was only $4,468.51, and that the higher figure resulted from Hugos inclusion of its own authorized markup on the extra work and the additional bonding cost incurred by Rugo on account thereof. This error was known (or should have been known) by Brady at that time, as its quotations to Rugo for the work totalled the lower amount. There was no evidence of any prejudice to Brady which would arise from the correction of this error and we see no reason for penalizing Rugo and Maryland for this mistake. Change order 104 should therefore be treated as imposing liability upon them only in the lesser amount of $4,468.51.

Another contested item is change order 111, containing a charge against Brady in the amount of $1,098.10. This change order was admitted de bene, counsel for Brady having objected to its admission because there had been no showing that Brady was privy to it or had ever even been informed of it.

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Bluebook (online)
317 N.E.2d 91, 2 Mass. App. Ct. 522, 1974 Mass. App. LEXIS 671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-electric-co-v-brady-electrical-co-massappct-1974.