Nimke v. Seeley

256 N.W. 858, 269 Mich. 208, 1934 Mich. LEXIS 897
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 23, 1934
DocketDocket No. 81, Calendar No. 37,880.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 256 N.W. 858 (Nimke v. Seeley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nimke v. Seeley, 256 N.W. 858, 269 Mich. 208, 1934 Mich. LEXIS 897 (Mich. 1934).

Opinion

Nelson Sharpe, C. J.

During the summer of 1929 the defendant employed Woodworth & Loree, a firm of architects in the city of Ann Arbor, to design and prepare drawings and specifications for a residence and garage to be constructed for him. Upon the completion of the drawings and specifications, the architects caused a number of copies to be made and submitted them to contractors, including the plaintiff, for a bid thereon. Plaintiff submitted a written proposal “to furnish all apparatus, materials and labor required to complete the work as required by the drawings and specifications” for the sum of $34,479. Some changes were made which reduced the amount of the bid to $32,551, and a written contract therefor was entered into on September 30, 1929.

This action was brought by plaintiff to recover a balance claimed by him to be due thereunder and for certain extra material and labor expended by him. He had judgment on trial by the court without *210 a jury in the sum of $1,856.28, from which the defendant has taken this appeal.

In arriving at this amount, the court declined to allow the defendant the sum of $1,196 which he had paid to the Ann Arbor Tile & Fireplace Company for certain tile work in the building. The contract contained an undertaking on the part of the plaintiff similar to that above quoted from-his proposal, and, he claimed that this tile work was not included therein.

'The architects had prepared several blue print copies of the drawings and 15 copies of the specifications. Ten copies were typed, five at a time, by a typist in their office, and five copies were made by a professional typist outside of the office. The pages were numbered consecutively at the bottoms thereof. Plaintiff produced the copy which he testified had been furnished to him, and from which he had estimated the cost as disclosed in his bid, and pages 44 and 45, on which the tile work in question appears as shown by the architects’ copy, do not appear therein. He also testified that as the work progressed the absence of any provision for the tile work was called to his attention by his foreman; that Mr. Woodworth, one of the firm of architects, was called in and, after some discussion, he was asked by Woodworth, “Well, will you look after it?” and he answered, “All right,” and that he soon after entered into the contract with the tile company to do the work for the price above stated.

It appears that in order to secure a building permit for the work it was necessary to file a copy of the blue print and specifications with the city engineer; that two copies of the specifications were delivered to his office by Mr. Woodworth, and after the permit was issued one of these copies was delivered to the plaintiff. This copy and that filed in *211 the engineer’s office were submitted in evidence, and the two pages do not appear therein.

Woodworth testified that his attention was called to the missing pages by plaintiff’s foreman and he said to him “that they probably had been removed in figuring the job;” that he went back to his own office and checked his specifications “and found them in order;” that the missing pages were first called to his attention by the plaintiff after all the work had been practically completed; that plaintiff then said that “he had been checking over his figures and that he hadn’t figured in the tile work;” that he told him he would take the matter up with the defendant, and that he did so, but was unable to secure his assent to the allowance of the tile bill.

The missing pages contain the specifications for the tile work, and no question is raised but that the defendant paid for this work and is entitled to a credit therefor if plaintiff was obligated under his contract to perform it. It appears that the tile work was referred to on other pages of the specifications, and it is the claim of the defendant that plaintiff was thus given notice that it was to be performed by him, and that the omission of these pages, if they were missing, should have been apparent to him, and must have been, from the number at the bottom of the preceding page. There is force in this contention.

The controlling fact, as we view it, is that the tile work was not included in the bid submitted by plaintiff. In it he listed 10 items of estimated cost and expenditures, which totaled the sum of $34,479, and the words “Tile & marble” appear therein. No price, however, was set opposite each item. But he testified that with it he submitted a list of 25 items, with the cost of each set opposite it, which amounted to the sum above stated. A carbon copy of this list *212 in his possession was introduced on defendant’s failure to produce the original. The tile work does not appear therein. Woodworth testified that he had never received this list. It appears from his testimony, however, that the file from his office containing the records of the transaction was surreptitiously removed therefrom. In our opinion, the evidence does not connect the plaintiff with such removal.

The contract provided that:

“The owner shall make payments on account of the contract as provided therein, as follows: On or about the 10th day of each month 90 per cent, of the value, based on the contract prices, of labor and materials incorporated in the work and of materials suitably stored at the site thereof up to the first day of that month, as estimated by the architect, less the aggregate of previous payments.”

Unless the prices charged by the plaintiff for the different classes of labor and materials which entered into the construction of the building were furnished to the architect, it would have been seemingly impossible for him to have complied with this provision, and it is undisputed that he did so.

The testimony of the plaintiff in respect to this list is corroborated by that of Louis A. Humrich, who furnished the screens for the plaintiff required by the contract. He testified that when he sought to obtain the contract from the plaintiff he interviewed Mr. Woodworth in his office, and that he said—“that if our screens could be purchased for the price that Mr. Nimke had originally figured in his contract, it was agreeable with him to use our equipment;” that Woodworth then consulted “a list made out on Mr. Nimke’s letterhead, or a sheet the size of a letterhead,” which looked like the carbon copy shown *213 him, and that, as he remembered, the price thereon for the screens was $820. This was the price fixed on the carbon copy therefor.

It clearly appears that pages 44 and 45 were omitted from the specifications furnished plaintiff, and pursuant to -which he submitted his bid. The heading on page 43 is “Tile and Marble Work.” It provides that—

“The contractor shall, as soon as possible, after the award of the contract, submit to the architects and owners a full and complete set of samples of all the tile and marble to be used in this work.”

It is conceded that no samples of tiles were submitted. This page also contains a heading “Preparation for Tile Floors,” and specifications as to the use of the marble, but the specifications for the tile work all appeared on pages 44 and 45 of the architects’ copy.

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Bluebook (online)
256 N.W. 858, 269 Mich. 208, 1934 Mich. LEXIS 897, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nimke-v-seeley-mich-1934.