Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Hollerbach

5 N.E. 28, 105 Ind. 137, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 426
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 18, 1886
DocketNo. 11,595
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 5 N.E. 28 (Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Hollerbach) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Hollerbach, 5 N.E. 28, 105 Ind. 137, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 426 (Ind. 1886).

Opinion

Mitchell, J. —

On the 25th day of July, 1881, a written contract was made between the Louisville and Nashville Bail-road Company and Archibald Hollerbach for the construction by the latter of two stone T (tee) abutments at Pigeon creek, on the St. Louis division of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in the city of Evansville. The material provisions of the contract are as follows:

1. That Hollerbach should furnish all the material except cement and sand, and build the abutments according to plans and specifications furnished by the company, the specifications to form part of the contract.

[139]*1392. That the stone should be obtained from the Cannelton quarries in this State, and be taken from the quarries to the bridge site at the expense of Hollerbach; but if the water in Pigeon creek should become too low for the use of barges, the company should furnish cars to transport the stone from the river to the bridge site, but that he should load it on the cars and unload it at the bridge site promptly.

3. That the company should furnish the foundations and the cement and sand, and that the job should be completed by the 20th day of November, 1881.

4. The company was to pay him nine and dollars for each cubic yard of stone laid in the abutments off of barges at the bridge site, and nine and dollars for each cubic yard of stone laid in the abutments off of cars at the bridge site.

5. The payments were to'be made as follows : Estimates of masonry laid will be made at the end of each month, and from the estimate twenty per cent, will be retained until the whole job is completed, when a final estimate will be made at the above specified rates, and all previous estimates deducted therefrom.”

Pending this contract, the benefit of it was assigned by Hollerbach to Simeon Jaseph.

The abutments were completed in the spring of 1883, and ■this suit was brought by Hollerbach to recover of the defendant a balance alleged to be due for the work, as by the contract, and also to recover damages for certain breaches of the contract therein alleged. Jaseph was made a defendant because of the assignment, which is alleged to have been only as collateral security for certain advances claimed at the date cf the suit to have been repaid him.

The complaint was in two paragraphs. After alleging the execution of the contract, the substantial grounds of complaint in the first paragraph are as follows:

1. That under the contract the plaintiff proceeded to construct the piers and finally constructed them to the approval [140]*140of the superintendent of bridges of the defendant, putting into the piers, from stone unloaded from cars, sixteen hundred and ninety-one cubic yards, of the value, according to the contract price, of sixteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine dollars; that the plaintiff, at the special instance and request of defendant, put into the piers work, material and labor to the amount of one hundred and forty dollars, which was extra and in no way contemplated by the terms of the written contract.

2. That, according to the terms of the contract, the defendant was to prepare the foundations of the work ready to receive the masonry to be furnished and constructed by the plaintiff, by the 25th day of July, 1881; but that, although the plaintiff was ready with -his tools, machinery, hands, material, barges and other things necessary for the construction of the piers at the time fixed in the contract, yet the defendant wholly neglected and refused to prepare the foundations as it had agreed to do, until the lapse of fifteen months after the time it had fixed; that by reason of the failure of the defendant to perform its part of the contract in the preparation of the foundations, the plaintiff was greatly injured and damaged in this:

1. That he was compelled to pay out and expend, and did pay out and expend in extra handling of stone, made necessary by 'the delay in the preparation of the foundations, the sum of twenty-four hundred dollars; that by reason of the delay he was compelled to unload his material from the barges on to the river bank, and then reload on to the barges and reload on the railroad cars, to his great damage.

2. That he was further greatly injured and damaged by the delay of the defendant, in this: loss of time of plaintiff, and of non-use of ropes, blocks, derricks and other tools and machinery, loss and destruction of material, and wear and tear and injury to ropes, blocks, derricks and other tools and machinery, by reason of exposure and the delay in the use of material which he had furnished and paid for, being [141]*141interest on fifty-five hundred dollars for fifteen months, in all, the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars.

3. That by the terms of the contract the defendant agreed to furnish to the plaintiff all the cars necessary tor the fast completion of the work, upon application of plaintiff, so that plaintiff should not be hindered in the work for want of cars; that after the foundations were completed and the plaintiff began the construction of the piers, he repeatedly made application to the defendant for cars for the transportation of stone to the bridge site, and defendant failed, neglected and refused to furnish plaintiff cars, by which he was greatly delayed in the work, that is to say, for one hundred days, to his damage fifteen hundred dollars.

It is averred that the defendant paid to the plaintiff the sum of eleven thousand dollars or thereabouts,” and that there is still due him on the contract, and for damages, the further sum of eleven thousand dollars, which the company refuses to pay.

The second paragraph contains the following additional grounds of complaint:

1. That the defendant was, by the terms of the contract, to furnish the foundations for the abutments according to the plans and specifications submitted at the time of making the contract, which were part of the contract; that defendant failed to construct the foundations according to the plans and specifications, in this: that the stems of the abutments were shortened two feet after the stone therefor had been delivered, at a cost of seven dollars per cubic yard, and that the shortening of the stems necessitated a great waste of stone which had been prepared and delivered, and which had to be chipped off, in all, ninety cubic yards, of the value of eight hundred dollars, and to the damage of this plaintiff eight hundred dollars.

2. That by the terms of the contract and changes made in the construction of the abutments, they were finally completed of a height of eighteen inches less than required by [142]*142the plans and specifications, by -which the plaintiff was damaged in preparing and delivering thirty-three cubic yards of stone of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, to his damage two hundred and fifty dollars.

The defendant moved the court for an order requiring the plaintiff to separate so much of his complaint as sought to recover for work done, in pursuance of the contract, into one action, and so much thereof as counted upon damages for the defendant’s default, into a separate action.

This motion was overruled, and the ruling excepted to, but no question is made upon this ruling here.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
5 N.E. 28, 105 Ind. 137, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 426, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/louisville-nashville-railroad-v-hollerbach-ind-1886.