Green-Beekman Const. Co. v. Klein

1926 OK 617, 254 P. 699, 124 Okla. 157, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 601
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 13, 1926
Docket16928
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1926 OK 617 (Green-Beekman Const. Co. v. Klein) 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
Green-Beekman Const. Co. v. Klein, 1926 OK 617, 254 P. 699, 124 Okla. 157, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 601 (Okla. 1926).

Opinion

Opinion by

PINKI-IAM, C.

This was an action in damage for the alleged violation of a contract. On August 8, 1924, the plaintiff in error, the Green-Beekman Construction Company, entered into a contract wich Oklahoma county and Oklahoma City for the construction of a viaduct across the North Canadian river in Oklahoma City. Thereafter, on August 15, 1924, the plaintiff jn error entered into a contract with J. B. Klein, sole owner and doing business as J. B. Klein Iron & Foundry Company, defendant in error, toy the terms of which the defendant in error agreed

“to furnish (the plaintiff in error) for the sum of $5.25 per hundredweight, steel tubes in connection with the. above project, of the dimensions and sizes of material as specified on plans and in specifications as prepared by city and county engineers. Shop drawing to be submitted for their approval. Tubes to be assembled and completed riveted in two sections to the pier and delivered by truck as close to erection point as road conditions will permit.* * *”

On the 23rd day of August, 1924, in pursuance to this contract, the defendant dn error ordered the materials necessary to be used in the construction of the tubes from the Central Iron & Steel Company, of Har-i risburg. Pa. It appears that in order to comply with the requirements of the general plans and specifications on file in the office of the county and city engineer it was necessary to' have the steel plates cut in sizes so that after being riveted together che tubes would be of the height and diameter called lor by the general plans and specifications. After the material had been ordered and the shop plans had been drawn, the-plaintiff in error, on September 8, 1924. ,attempted to cancel the contract by writing a letter to the defendí, nt in error an which (he plaintiff in error stated that:

“It will be necessary for us to cancel our tentative order wich you for Walker street viaduct tubes due to conditions with which you are familiar:'

—and on the 10th day of September the plaintiff in error again repudiated the contract and advised the defendant in error that any material he had ordered under the alleged .agreement would toe at his own risk.

After receiving this letter the defendant in error undertook to stop the shipment of such material as -had been made ready ;or shipment, but the order to stop shipmenc came too late, with the result that all of the marerial ordered was delivered to the defendant in error at its foundry in Oklahoma Gity. It appears that this material consisted of a great number of steel places of the iwopes.- thickness, size, and tensil srength for use in the construction of the steel rubes, which plates were unloaded at the yards of the defendant in error, and remained there until sold, a ter the filing of this suit, to the highest bidder, at which sale rhese plates ln-ought the sum of $2.500.-03, which sum was taken into consideration in the trial of the case and deducted from the amount claimed by the defendant in error in its petition.

The case was cried before the court and jury, and at the close of all the evidence the plaintiff in error moved for an instructed verdict, which was, by the court, overruled and exception reserved. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant in error, plaintiff in the lower court, for $3,-544.60. The plaintiff in error’s motion for a new trial was overruled, exceptions saved, and the cause comes regularly on appeal to this court by che plaintiff in error by petition in error and case-made attached. The parties will toe referred to as they appeared in the trial court: J. B. Klein Iron & Foundry Company as plaintiff, and the Green-Beekman Construcción Company as defendant.

All of the defendant's assignments of error are presented and argued under two propositions, the first of which is that the *159 defendant i-a the lower court was entitled to an instructed verdict. The argument in support of this proposition is, as we understand it, that section 29 of the plans and specifications, which provides that “it is understood no work shall be done on material before the working drawings have been finally approved by the engineer, and any 'work done on material ordered prior 10 the approval shall be at the contractor’s risk,” was not observed by the J. B. Klein Iron & Foundry Company, and that when the plaintiff ordered material cut in special sizes and specially designed and fabricated for the, Walker street viaduct to the amount of 292,369 pounds, and the said Central Iron & Steel Company immediately cut the steel so ordered by plaintiff in special sizes and specially designed and fabricated, without the said plaintiff having first submitted plans and shop drawings to the engineers, the plaintiff breached and violated, the terms, conditions, and provisions of its said contract, and cannot recover damages in this action.

The testimony shows that rhe dimensions anjd sizes of material were specified on plans and specifications made by the county and city engineers, a copy of which was given to- the plaintiff by the defendant at the date of the execution o* this contract for the plaintiff’s guidance and us'e in eons;rueting steel tubes, and that the copy which the defendant furnished the plaintiff for that purpose was an exact copy of the copies on file in the office of the city and county engineers, and that no- change had been made therein between the date of the contract and the time of trial.- The plaintiff, in other words, contracted to furnish (he defendant steel tubes of the dimensions and sizes of material specified in the official plans @.nd specifications -. and the testimony further shows that the material ordered by ilie plaintiff was of the exact size and dimensions as specified in the plans and specifications as provided in the contract.

The testimony shows that after the order was received by the plaintiff, the plans and specifications examined, the dimensions of the tulies and the weight and thickness of the material in their construction ascertained. the plaintiff ordered the material as called for in the plans and specifications. The material arrived, hut was not fabricated into the steel tubes for the reason that the defendant company repudiated the contract, and it further appears that after the defendant mailed letters to the plaintiff repudiating the contract the plaintiff stopped fabrication in order to minimiz'e the damage.

The testimony further shows that after receiving the letter of September 10-th of the defendant company, repudiating the contract, the plaintiff sought to cancel the order for the material by sending a wire to the Central Iron & Steel Company to stop further shipment of material, but it appears that this attempt failed by reason of being made too late, and all plates were delivered at the yard of the plaintiff and paid for by the plaintiff.

We are unable to find anything in the evidence disclosed by the record to indicate that any failure of the plaintiff to furnish shop drawings had anything- t-o do with the repudiation of the contract by the defendant company. In the two letters sent by rhe defendant to the plaintiff (here is no com-i plaint of the failure -to furnish shop drawings.

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Bluebook (online)
1926 OK 617, 254 P. 699, 124 Okla. 157, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 601, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/green-beekman-const-co-v-klein-okla-1926.