Maryland Supreme Corp. v. Blake Co.

369 A.2d 1017, 279 Md. 531, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 721, 1977 Md. LEXIS 919
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedMarch 1, 1977
Docket[No. 144, September Term, 1976.]
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 369 A.2d 1017 (Maryland Supreme Corp. v. Blake Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maryland Supreme Corp. v. Blake Co., 369 A.2d 1017, 279 Md. 531, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 721, 1977 Md. LEXIS 919 (Md. 1977).

Opinion

Orth, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Maryland Supreme Corporation (Supreme) sued Blake Company (Blake) in general assumpsit in the Circuit Court for Washington County claiming $6,000 damages. Blake filed a counterclaim against Supreme for $12,590.24 as damages for breach of contract. The court, sitting without a jury, found that Supreme owed Blake $6,590.24 and a judgment was entered under the counterclaim in favor of Blake against Supreme in that amount with costs. Supreme appealed to the Court of Special Appeals. We granted a writ of certiorari before decision by that court.

We are called upon to decide whether there was a contract for sale of goods between Supreme and Blake, and if there was, the extent to which it was enforceable.

I

The controversy stemmed from the construction of the Western Heights Middle School. In such a building project there are basically three parties involved: the letting party, who calls for bids on its job; the general contractor, who makes a bid on the whole project; and the subcontractors, who bid only on that portion of the whole job which involves the field of its specialty. The usual procedure is that when a project is announced, a subcontractor, on his own initiative or at the general contractor’s request, prepares an estimate and submits a bid to one or more of the general contractors *534 interested in the project. The general contractor evaluates the bids made by the subcontractors in each field and uses them to compute its total bid to the letting party. After receiving bids from general contractors, the letting party ordinarily awards the contract to the lowest reputable bidder. 1

II

From the evidence adduced, it is manifest that the usual method of operation in the construction industry was followed in the construction of the Western Heights Middle School.-The letting party, the Board of Education, advertised for bids for the construction of the. School. Blake was one of the general contractors who responded. Supreme, a manufacturer of ready mixed concrete, learned through a trade journal what general contractors had bid on the job. After examining the specifications relating to concrete for the project, Supreme, as a subcontractor, wrote the interested general contractors with reference to supplying the concrete required. Its letter to Blake, dated 11 March 1975, read:

The Blake Company
P. 0. Box 47
Hagerstown, Maryland 21740
Attention: Mr. Vernon Tetlow
Re: Western Heights Middle School
Dear Sirs:
We are pleased to submit a quotation on ready mix for the above mentioned project.
Please take note that the price will be guaranteed to hold throughout the job.
*535 3,000 p.s.i. concrete $21.00 per yard, net
Hope that you are successful in your bid and that we may be favored with your valued order.
Yours very truly,
MARYLAND SUPREME
CORPORATION
/s/ Ben Wicklein
Sales Representative

Blake was the successful bidder. About 24 May 1975, fifty-nine days after the bids were opened, it was informed that it had been awarded the job as the general contractor. There was no written notification by Blake to Supreme that Supreme would supply the concrete. Vernon L. Tetlow, Blake’s Engineering Manager, testified that he notified subcontractors “as soon as we get a contract that they are going to get one.” He verbally notified Benjamin F. Wicklein, Supreme’s salesman, that Supreme was to furnish the concrete for the job. “ ‘Ben’ always asked me ‘Are we good on that job? Are we going to furnish that job?’ I said, ‘Yes, give me a mix design.’ Like we always do.” That was the way he had notified Supreme on other jobs for which Supreme was to supply the concrete.

On 27 May a quality control engineer of Supreme wrote Blake, at Wicklein’s request, submitting a concrete mix design and test data in order to obtain the approval of the concrete by the architect as required by the specifications. Wicklein said that he knew when the test data was submitted that Blake was the general contractor for the project. The specifications for the project included a provision that within forty-eight hours after the bids were opened the three lowest bidders must submit a list of subcontractors to the Board of Education. Thereafter, the successful bidder had to obtain the approval of the Board of Education before changing any subcontractor, and, in the case of concrete, new test data would have to be submitted and approved. In complying with the requirement to name its subcontractors, Blake gave Supreme as the supplier of *536 the concrete, and Supreme was so listed in the contract to build the School.

The Engineering Manager for Blake, Tetlow, explained why there was no formal written contract with Supreme. With some subcontractors, for example the electrical subcontractor, Blake “would furnish ... a finite — to do all the electrical work complete for ‘X’ amount of dollars” and enter into a written contract. This cannot be done, said Tetlow, with suppliers of material like stone on the slab, rough lumber or concrete. There is never a written contract covering all the concrete to be furnished “[b]ecause there is no finite amount of money that I can write it for, because we are working with a variable on the quantity of the concrete that’s going to be delivered; the same way with rough lumber or stone.” He explained that you work it on “a neat yardage, but some would spill over, so I couldn’t write a purchase order [to cover the entire job].” Therefore, according to Kenneth Lee Wilson, Supreme’s Sales Manager, and Wicklein, the procedure in ordering concrete was that “the job superintendent would order what he needed for the next day either by calling our ready mix dispatcher for 10 yards or 20 yards or whatever” or, when Wicklein was on the job site, the superintendent would tell Wicklein.

For a time all went well. Supreme began delivering concrete to the job on 11 July 1975, and it is obvious that the procedure outlined by Wilson and Wicklein was followed. As shown by Supreme’s ledger sheets listing invoices to Blake, deliveries were, made a number of times a day on various days to supply the concrete to be poured from time to time. 2 Supreme billed Blake at the rate of $21 per yard in accordance with its letter of 11 March 1975, and the parties were apparently content.

Trouble brewed in late October. On 24 October 1975 Supreme wrote Blake: “Due to numerous increases in the cost of cement and other raw materials absorbed by our company since our last increase, we are forced to raise our *537 ready mix prices effective November 1, 1975 ....

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Bluebook (online)
369 A.2d 1017, 279 Md. 531, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 721, 1977 Md. LEXIS 919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maryland-supreme-corp-v-blake-co-md-1977.