Pacific Rolling Mill Co. v. English

50 P. 383, 118 Cal. 123, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 745
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 10, 1897
DocketS. F. No. 530
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 50 P. 383 (Pacific Rolling Mill Co. v. English) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pacific Rolling Mill Co. v. English, 50 P. 383, 118 Cal. 123, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 745 (Cal. 1897).

Opinion

SEARLS, C.

This action was brought by the plaintiff, a corporation, to have the defendants, the state board'of harbor commissioners, adjudged and directed to draw their draft on the harbor fund, in favor of the plaintiff, for the sum of $4,607.12, and to ascertain and determine to which of the other defendants the balance of a fund of $28,084.12 belongs, and to have drafts in their favor therefor; to have the Kennedy <& Shaw Lumber Company, a corporation, a defendant herein, restrained and enjoined from prosecuting a writ of mandate against said state board of harbor commissioners for the recovery of said sum of money, etc., and to restrain the said harbor commissioners from drawing drafts for any portion of said sum until the further order of the court.

The other defendants are the San Francisco Contracting Company, a corporation, L. B. Doe, J. S. Antonelli, J. W. Taylor, W. S. Somervell, and C. D. Vincent.

The cause was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury, and upon the findings of the court judgment was entered, whereby it was adjudged that neither plaintiff nor the defendants, J. W. Taylor and W. S. Somervell, take anything by the action; that the sum or fund in question of $28,084.12 be divided as follows: $308 and interest, etc., to defendant C. D. Vincent, and the residue thereof to the defendant, the Kennedy & Shaw Lumber Company, with costs, etc.

Plaintiff appeals from the judgment and from an order denying its motion for a new trial.

[125]*125As tbe judgment was entered between two and three years prior to the attempted appeal therefrom, we need not notice it further, and may confine our inquiry to the order denying a new trial.

The facts essential to an understanding of the case are, that on the twenty-fifth day of October, 1888, the board of state harbor commissioners, consisting at that time of W. D. English, A. C. Paulsell, and Charles 0. Alexander, entered into a contract with defendant J. S. Antonelli for the construction by the said Anto-nelli of section 8b, of the seawall along the waterfront and wharves of the harbor of San Francisco, said seawall to be constructed according to and in conformity with certain plans and specifications submitted and executed by the parties.

By the terms of the contract Antonelli was to furnish the labor and materials, and to be paid as follows, to wit, seventy-live (75) per cent monthly upon estimates thereof to be made by the chief engineer of said board, and the balance of twenty-five (25) per cent to be retained by said board until the completion of the work according to the plans and specifications; and until the acceptance of the work and its maintenance for three months thereafter.

On the first day of November, 1888, defendant Antonelli entered into an agreement or subcontract with the defendant, San Francisco Contracting Company, a corporation, whereby the said contracting company agreed with Antonelli to perform certain portions of the work and to furnish certain portions of the materials provided for in the original contract, to wit, to furnish the piles, lumber, and other materials necessary to drive ana cap the same; put the platform on top thereof ready to receive concrete and sand in accordance with the plans and specifications of the lief engineer, etc. All of said work to be done and completed a accordance with said plans and specifications, and said contracting company to furnish everything necessary therefor to complete said work of piling and planking. Antonelli agreed to pay the contracting company $53,000 for said work and materials when so. furnished and done in accordance with the contract. The contracting company was also to furnish and fill in, on top of the planking and below, all the sand and rock called for by the specifications for 30 cents per cubic yard; to furnish and place the rock for the stone foot wall outside the concrete for 80 [126]*126cents per ton; and to protect the north end of the embankment, as set forth in the plans and specifications, by a bulkhead, free of charge.

The contracting company also agreed to furnish and deliver the rock required for concrete ready for use for $1.25 per cubic yard, and, in case a floating caisson should be used instead of a cofferdam in the construction of the seawall, the contracting company was to furnish the iron and lumber for the bottom of said caisson, and the labor necessary in building thereof (except the calking), and to fasten the caisson in place when sunk by Antonelli. Antonelli was to pay the contracting company as follows:

Seventy-five (75) per cent monthly on the estimates of the chief engineer of the board of harbor commissioners, “the balance of twenty-five (25) per cent said Antonelli agreed to pay by an order drawn upon said board of state harbor commissioners in favor of John F. Kennedy, to be by him held until the completion of said contract and the acceptance of said work by the said board of state harbor commissioners, but only on the faithful performance of said contract by the said San Francisco Contracting Company.”

The plans and specifications prepared by the harbor commission were made a part of the contract, and if the contracting company failed to perform the contract as therein specified, and if Antonelli had to complete the work, the orders so to be delivered to Kennedy were to be forfeited and returned to said Antonelli; and, if the company failed to perform, Antonelli might proceed with the work at the expense of the contracting company.

All the conditions of the original contract of Antonelli with the state board of harbor commissioners were to be considered a part of the contract.

The contracting company entered upon the work and pursued it until in January, 1890, when it abandoned it and thereafter failed and refused to complete the same. It had received pay to the extent of seventy-five per cent of the estimates, and the twenty-five per cent of the value of the work done at the time of the abandonment of the contract, which was kept and retained by the harbor commissioners under the contract as security, etc., amounted to the sum of $11,887.73 (which, with the exception of [127]*127$4,170.12, bad been assigned to tbe Kennedy & Shaw Lumber Company). Antonelli assigned to Antonelli & Doe, who completed the contracting company’s contract at a loss of $4,834.80, over and above what they received or were entitled to receive on the original contract.

On December 23, 1889, the contracting company assigned to plaintiff herein its interest present and future in the twenty-five per cent due or to become due it under said contract with Anto-nelli, except such portions thereof as it had previously assigned to the Kennedy & Shaw Lumber Company.

The amount then unpaid on account of said twenty-five per cent was $4,170.12, and thereafter a further sum of about $500 was retained by the harbor commission as twenty-five per cent of the value of work subsequently done by the contracting company, under its said contract with Antonelli. Antonelli consented in writing to the assignment by the contracting company to plaintiff.

The board of state harbor commissioners had notice of the contract between Antonelli and the contracting company, and that the latter was performing labor, etc., thereunder, but never consented thereto, and looked solely to Antonelli to perform his contract with said board.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 P. 383, 118 Cal. 123, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 745, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pacific-rolling-mill-co-v-english-cal-1897.