Kinzer Construction Co. v. State

125 N.Y.S. 46
CourtNew York Court of Claims
DecidedSeptember 26, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 125 N.Y.S. 46 (Kinzer Construction Co. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kinzer Construction Co. v. State, 125 N.Y.S. 46 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1910).

Opinion

RODENBECK, J.

The. claimant made a .contract with the state of New York to construct 3.76 miles of the improved Champlain Canal which is a part of the so-called Barge Canal system of the state now in progress of construction; and while the work was in progress, .and claimant was excavating for one of the locks, an extensive cave-in occurred, which revealed the fact that for the balance of the contract the earth was of a “slippery greasy clay,” with not sufficient resistency to permit of the construction according to the contract, plans, and .specifications of the lock and substantially the remainder of the work. The state issued a stop order while it was investigating and determining what to do under these unexpected conditions, and this order remained in force for six months, when an alteration order which involved extensive changes in the construction of the remainder of the work was submitted by the state to the claimant for the completion of the contract. The claimant refused to accept these alterations, insisting that they constituted a fundamental change • in the contract and amounted to a breach of the contract by'the state, and thereupon the state proceeded to advertise for bids for the completion of the work, and let it to other contractors, and the claimant filed this claim for the work done and not paid for, and for damages including loss of profits on the portion of the work uncompleted, amounting, in all, to $37*0,525.41. The total amount of the contract, including previous alteration orders, was $968,296.11, and there was uncompleted at the time that the stop order was issued $521,954.42, and of this amount $398,612 was eliminated and new work was added, aggregating $153,-584.50, so that the work to be done there was a reduction of $245,-027.50 or a decrease of about 25 per cent, of the contract price, and [49]*49upon these facts, and upon the terms of its contract, the claimant insists that the state violated its contract and justified its course in refusing to complete the contract; while the state claims that the construction of the work when the cave-in occurred revealed the fact that the subsoil was so treacherous that the lock could not be constructed in that section of claimant’s contract at all, and made necessary the other changes in the plans and specifications, and also that the alterations were authorized by the contract, and that claimant was guilty of a breach of its contract in refusing to complete it as directed by the alteration order. The claimant had agreed in its contract that it had satisfied itself by its own investigation and research regarding “all the conditions affecting the work,” and that its conclusion to execute the contract was based upon such investigation and research, and not upon any information prepared by the state engineer.

If the contention of the claimant is sustained, the state will be ' obliged, not only to pay to the claimant the amount of work done and not paid for under the contract and profits which claimant estimates at $210,490.84 besides other damages, but to other contractors the profits, if any, which they will make upon the completion of the work under the reletting; while, if the position of the state is upheld that under the clause in the contract reserving to it the right to make necessary alterations in the plans it was authorized to make the changes which it did, the claimant not only loses the profits which it claims, but it must pay the state any damages caused by its failure to perform the contract including the increased cost, if any, of completing the work. The contention of the claimant is based upon the interpretation that it places upon the clause in the contract relating to alterations in the plans and specifications, and it insists that the changes proposed by the state were fundamental alterations of the contract, and were not contemplated when the contract was made, and constituted a breach thereof. This claim provides that the state may make such alterations in the plans and specifications as may be “necessary.”

The case, however, does not turn upon the construction of this clause in the contract, but rests upon another proposition growing out of the conditions that were found when the attempt was made to construct lock No. 7. When this part of the work was reached, a condition of the soil was found which made it impossible to construct the lock as planned, and made it impracticable to build it within the limits of the remainder of the contract. When the excavation for the foundation of the lock had been carried to a depth of 10 or 12 feet, it was found that the underlying stratum was a greasy slippery clay with no grit in it—“just like axle grease,” as one witness put it. Claimant’s expert said that he had never seen any soil like it, and that it would not be good engineering to build a lock in such material at all. Under this condition of things, the case falls within that line of decisions where the contract is regarded as at an end and performance is excused because of the failure of conditions the existence of which are necessary to the performance of the contract. The early rule upon impossibility as an excuse for the performance of a contract was that inability to execute an absolute executory contract due to subsequent unforeseen accident or misfortune1 without the fault of either party [50]*50will not excuse performance. Paradine v. Jane, Aleyn, 26. This rule which was promulgated in English Jurisprudence as early as the year 1178 was based upon the ground as stated in this case that:

“Where the party by his own contract creates a duty or charge upon himself, he is bound to make it good, if he may, notwithstanding any accident by inevitablé necessity, because he might have provided against it by his contract.”

By the language of the Constitution of the state of New York, this rule with the remainder of the common law of England and Great Britain became operative in this state subject to such alterations as might be made from time to time. State Const. 1777, art. 35. There are many illustrations of the adoption and application of the rule in this state (Harmony v. Bingham, 12 N. Y. 99, 62 Am. Dec. 142; Tompkins v. Dudley, 25 N. Y. 272, 82 Am. Dec. 349; Wheeler v. Conn. Mut. Life Ins. Co., 82 N. Y. 543, 37 Am. Rep. 594; Booth v. Spuyten Duyvil Rolling Mill Co., 60 N. Y. 487), but exceptions began to creep in as a strict enforcement of the rule seemed to work out an inequitable result.

In England the rule prevailed in all its severity down to the middle of the last century (Hall v. Wright, E. B. & E. [1857]), but since then the courts both here and in England have modified it to a large extent upon the theory that the event which rendered the performance impossible should be implied as a matter of law as one of the conditions of the contract (Taylor v. Caldwell, 3 B. & S. 8249 [1863]; Bailey v. De Crespigny, L. R. 4 Q. B. 185), thus carrying out the supposed intention of the parties, and placing such contingencies as excuse- performance upon the same basis as an act of God which Pollock defines as:

“An event which as between the-parties and for the purposes of the matter in hand cannot be definitely foreseen or controlled.” Pollock on Contracts (3d Ed.) p. 535.

. These exceptions have been, growing so that now there are at least four well-recognized modifications of the early rule, while the courts seem to be groping for a rule broad enough to include all of the exceptions.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
125 N.Y.S. 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kinzer-construction-co-v-state-nyclaimsct-1910.