Mullinix Construction Co. v. Myers

1960 OK 241, 358 P.2d 187, 1960 Okla. LEXIS 515
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 22, 1960
DocketNo. 38615
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1960 OK 241 (Mullinix Construction Co. v. Myers) 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
Mullinix Construction Co. v. Myers, 1960 OK 241, 358 P.2d 187, 1960 Okla. LEXIS 515 (Okla. 1960).

Opinion

HALLEY, Justice.

This action for damages for breach of contract was filed in the District Court of Oklahoma County, October 5, 1953, by Claude Myers and James L. Furr, partners doing business as Myers & Furr Truck Contractors, against Mullinix Construction Company, a corporation.

The case was tried to a jury which returned a verdict for the plaintiffs in the sum of $3,500. Motion for a new trial was overruled and judgment rendered for plaintiffs in accordance with the verdict. Defendant appealed and the parties will be referred to as plaintiffs and defendant as they appeared in the trial court.

■ Plaintiffs alleged in substance that in 1953 they were engaged in contracting to do hauling and trucking work, when the defendant obtained contracts to do certain road work around Cameron, LeFlore County, and also certain work extending from Heavener to Wister Lake.

The defendant asked for bids for the hauling of road material on both jobs and requested plaintiffs to submit bids, which they did in June, 1953. The bids were opened in July, 1953, and plaintiffs were the low bidders, and were so notified by defendant that they had been awarded the contract for hauling on both jobs, that is at Cameron and at Heavener.

Plaintiffs alleged that they performed the Cameron job as contracted, and were notified to be ready to proceed on the Heavener job in the latter part of September, 1953, and were told when their trucks should report for duty; that they obtained drivers for all their trucks and reported for duty on the Heavener job on the day specified; but were notified by de[189]*189fendant for the first time that they would not perform the hauling on the Heavener job.

Plaintiffs alleged that upon .reliance upon acceptance of their bid upon the Heavener job by defendant, they had purchased five trucks at a cost of about $10,000, and had spent several hundred dollars in repairing other equipment already owned and had gone to considerable expense in securing truck drivers to report fo.r duty on the second job at the time defendant had set for them to begin such work; and that they would have made a profit of from $9,000 to $10,000 had they been permitted to proceed, but by reason of the attempted cancellation of the contract to do that job they lost the value of their trucks for at least thirty days. They prayed for judgment for $10,000.

The defendant answered by a verified general denial and alleged that the purported oral contract is invalid under the statute of frauds, and was not supported by consideration.

Since most of the evidence before the court as to the question of whether the plaintiffs submitted a bid to do the hauling on one or two projects, we deem it desirable to set out in full their written bid to the defendant. Plaintiffs introduced as their exhibit No. 1, their written bid, together with the envelope in which the bid was forwarded from Jay, Oklahoma, July 2, 1953, to defendant’s correct address in Oklahoma City. The bid of plaintiffs to do the hauling on both the Cameron and the Heavener-Wister jobs is as follows:

“Myers & Furr Truck Contractors Jay, Oklahoma.

“Box 391 Phone 199

“Mullinix Construction Company 1433 N.W. 5th Street Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

“Attention: Mr. Mullinix.

“Dear Sir:

“Enclosed you will find our bid for the two contracts that you have near Poteau and Wister.

“$.052 per ton mile for both contracts on the rock.

“$.065 per yard mile for chips on both contracts.

“We have six trucks; three 1952 Fords with five yard beds and three GMC 1952 with five yard beds. We have just finished a contract for Quapaw Construction Company on Highway 59 South of Jay, Oklahoma. If you wish you . may contact Mr. Childress fo.r reference about us.

“Hoping to hear from you, I remain,.

“Sincerely yours,

Claude R. Myers

Myers & Furr Truck Contractors”

It is not disputed by the defendant that plaintiffs had contracted to do the work to complete both of the contracts mentioned, and had asked that bids to do the hauling be submitted on both of them. After being-notified by defendant that they were the low bidders and could do the hauling on-both, they were notified when to start such work. There was never a word in writing that the acceptance of plaintiffs on both projects was conditioned upon satisfactory work on the first project performed.

The defendant, plaintiff in error here,, submits four propositions. In its first proposition it contends that the court erred: in giving instructions to the jury and especially to Instruction No. 7.

The principal objection of defendant to. Instruction No. 7 is that this instruction took from the jury the question of whether the parties contracted to do the Heavener-Wister job, since defendant claimed that if plaintiffs’ work was satisfactory on the first job, then it would consider giving them the second job. This objection is based largely upon that portion of Instruction No. 7, which is as follows:

“In this connection you are instructed that under the uncontradicted evidence in this case the plaintiffs and the defendant did enter into a contract for both the Cameron and the Heavener-Wister phases of the construction, * *

[190]*190The above-quoted portion of Instruction No. 7 might be misleading, but for the other provisions, which follow the last-quoted portion of No. 7, and which are as follows:

“ * * * but the plaintiffs contend that the contract was an unqualified acceptance of their offer as set out in Plaintiffs’ Exhibit #1, while the defendant contends that it contracted to let the Heavener-Wister phase to the plaintiffs only in the event their performance of the Cameron phase was satisfactory. In this connection you are instructed that the burden of proof is upon the defendant to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the plaintiffs conducted and performed the Cameron phase of the contract in an unsatisfactory manner.”

When we consider the provisions just quoted, we conclude that there is no merit in defendant’s objection to Instruction No. 7. There was conflicting evidence as to whether there was a contract for both jobs or only one, but the question was properly left to the jury.

Instruction No. 8 was excepted to by the defendant upon the ground that it failed to instruct the jury on the question of whether plaintiffs’ work on project No. 1 was of such quality as to constitute satisfactory work, insofar as defendant is concerned.

The error complained of in this Instruction rests largely upon the court’s having added to proper standard of performance the following words:

“ * * * having the experience and equipment which the plaintiffs possessed, * *

and in paragraph No. 2, also said:

“ * * * with the experience and equipment which plaintiffs possessed. * * * ”

In the first paragraph of No.

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Bluebook (online)
1960 OK 241, 358 P.2d 187, 1960 Okla. LEXIS 515, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mullinix-construction-co-v-myers-okla-1960.