J. Watts Kearny & Sons v. Perry

141 So. 13, 174 La. 411, 1932 La. LEXIS 1977
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 30, 1932
DocketNo. 31177.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 141 So. 13 (J. Watts Kearny & Sons v. Perry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J. Watts Kearny & Sons v. Perry, 141 So. 13, 174 La. 411, 1932 La. LEXIS 1977 (La. 1932).

Opinion

LAND, J.

On May 13, 1926, W. C. Perry entered into a contract with the Louisiana Highway Commission to construct and complete all of the road work known and described as state project 127-E, consisting of the surfacing of the Hammond-New Orleans High-' way, route No. 33, in the parish of St. John the Baptist.

W. C. Perry, as principal, and the Union Indemnity Company, as surety, executed in

favor of the state, and .of all subcontractors, workmen, laborers, mechanics, and furnishers of material and supplies, a bond to secure the faithful performance of the contract, and a bond for the payment of all bills for materials used and labor performed in the construction of the work.

The Weaver Sand Company, Inc., entered into a contract with W. C. Perry, contractor, to furnish all the gravel required by him in the construction of the work, and J. Watts Kearny & Sons, plaintiff, agreed to sell to the Weaver Sand Company, Inc., the necessary gravel according to specifications, required by the Louisiana highway commission.

Plaintiff, in accordance with its contract with the Weaver Sand Company, Inc., delivered to that company the gravel purchased, but said company failed to pay plaintiff a balance of $7,861.96 due under the contract.

W. C. Perry, contractor, defaulted on the contract, and the Louisiana highway commission called upon the surety company to complete the work, and on May 4, 1927, project 127-E, route No. 33 in the parish of St. John the Baptist, was formally accepted by the Louisiana highway commission.

At that date the following claims were of record in the parish of St. John the Baptist against “W. O. Perry, contractor, the Weaver Sand Company, Inc., sub-contractor, and the Louisiana Highway Commission to-wit: J. Watts Kearney & Sons, $9,709.59; Alb. G. Thomas, $1,186.47.”

On March 5, 1927, there was paid to plaintiff by the Weaver Sand Company, Inc., the sum of $1,847.63, leaving a balance due of $7,861.96.

Plaintiff claims the balance duo for materials furnished to the Weaver Sand Company, Inc., on the ground that said company is a subcontractor of. W. C. Perry, contractor.

As the public authorities failed to provoke a coneursus within the delays -prescribed by Act 224 of 1918, plaintiff instituted the present proceedings in order that the rights of all parties might be tried and judicially determined.

*415 Plaintiff has cited the Louisiana highway-commission, W. O. Perry, contractor, the Union Indemnity Company, surety, and Albert G. Thomas, claimant, to appear and answer, and prays that the claims and defenses of these defendants and claimants be tried in concurso with the claim of plaintiff. Plaintiff also prays for judgment against W, C. Perry, Weaver Sand Company,' Inc., Union Indemnity Company, and the Louisiana highway commission, in solido, in the sum of $7,861.96, with interest at 5 per cent, thereon from January 27, 1927, and that plaintiff be allowed to recover 10 per cent, of the amount of its claim as attorney’s fees, and that the same be taxed against those defendants.

The defendants, the Louisiana highway commission, W. C. Perry, and the Union Indemnity Company filed exceptions of no right or cause of action. Judgment was rendered in favor of defendants, maintaining these exceptions, and dismissing plaintiff’s suit. From this judgment plaintiff has taken a devolutive appeal to this court.

• In support of the exceptions of no right or cause of action, counsel for defendants contend that the obligations of a contractor, under Act No. 224 of 1918, for the construction of a public work, the obligations of his surety, and those of the public authority for which the work is done, to pay for labor and materials used .in the work, are by law restricted to creditors of the contractor and his subcontractors, and do not extend to creditors of materialmen, and that, since plaintiff is merely a furnisher of material to another furnisher of material, it is without any right of action against defendants.

It is provided in section 1 of the act that, when public works are about to be constructed at the expense of a public body, the representative of that body shall require of the contractor a bond for the performance of the contract, “with an additional obligation for the payment by the contractor and by all subcontractors for all work done, labor performed, or material furnished” in the construction of the work.

The plain terms of this section restrict its operation to creditors of the contractor and of subcontractors.

This interpretation is recognized in Silver v. Harriss, 165 La. 89, 115 So. 376, 378, in which it is said: “The statute declares that the obligation of the bond shall be for the payment of all moneys due by subcontractors, as well as by the contractor, for work done, labor performed, or materials furnished.”

In the instant case, plaintiff, J. Watts Kearny & Sons, is a materialman, who furnished materials to the Weaver Sand Company, Inc., another materialman, who sold and delivered the same materials to W. C. Perry, contractor. There is no privity of contract whatever between plaintiff, J. Watts Kearny & Sons, and'W. 0. Perry, contractor, and the transaction between Perry and the Weaver Sand Company, Inc., constituted merely a completed sale of material. Weaver Sand Company, Inc., was not a subcontractor, as it had not contracted with Perry, the contractor, to do any work embraced in his original contract with the Louisiana highway commission. Plaintiff, therefore, is not a creditor of the contractor, W. C. Perry, nor of any subcontractor, and is not entitled to the protection of Act No. 224 of 1918.

*417 The conclusion we have reached is supported by the following authorities:

Dolese Bros. Co. v. Andrecopulas, 113 Okl. 18, 237 P. 844; Hihn-Hammond Lumber Co. v. Elsom, 171 Cal. 570, 154 P. 12, Ann. Cas. 1917C, 798; Merriman v. Jones, 43 Minn. 29, 44 N. W. 526; Van Dorn Iron Works Co. v. Erie-Huron Realty Co., 108 Ohio St. 314, 140 N. E. 325; Buhler v. N. Y. Dock Co., 170 App. Div. 486, 156 N. Y. S. 457; Herrmann & Grace v. City of New York, 130 App. Div. 531, 114 N. Y. S. 1107; Rudolph Hegener Co. v. Frost, 60 Ind. App. 108, 108 N. E. 16.

Plaintiff’s suit shows, upon its face, most convincingly that plaintiff itself has interpreted Act No. 224 of 1918 in the same manner as defendants have done.

Admittedly, plaintiff’s right or cause of action is predicated flatly upon the proposition that the Weaver Sand Company, Inc., is the subcontractor of W. C. Perry, contractor, and that plaintiff is a creditor of the subcontractor.

Such is the plain and unmistakable allegation of plaintiffs petition. Yet plaintiff now argues that it makes no difference, under Act No. 224 of 1918, whether plaintiff is a materialman and furnished material to another materialman (the Weaver Sand' Company, Inc.), who in turn sold it to the contractor, since plaintiff has furnished material which was used in the work, and has fully complied with the terms of the act, and therefore plaintiff is entitled to recover against defendants .at all events.

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Bluebook (online)
141 So. 13, 174 La. 411, 1932 La. LEXIS 1977, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-watts-kearny-sons-v-perry-la-1932.