Southern Surety Co. v. Dolese Bros. Co.

1931 OK 254, 299 P. 211, 149 Okla. 31, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 163
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 12, 1931
Docket19975
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1931 OK 254 (Southern Surety Co. v. Dolese Bros. Co.) 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
Southern Surety Co. v. Dolese Bros. Co., 1931 OK 254, 299 P. 211, 149 Okla. 31, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 163 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

CLARK, Y. C. J.

This action was commenced in the district court of Oklahoma county by the defendant in error, Dolese Brothers Company, a corporation, against plaintiff in error, Southern Surety Company, and Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins, a copartnership, for the recovery of a balance due the defendant in error of $249.69 for material furnished Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins on a contract for paving, etc., in the city of We-woka, Okla. The suit is based upon a statutory • bond given pursuant to section 7486, C. O. S. 1921, executed by the contractor, Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins, principal, and defendant Southern Surety Company, surety, for public work. The bond is in the sum of $70,190.72 and recites that the principal and surety “bind ourselves, and each of us, our heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns, jointly and severally by these presents.” The bond further provides that said principal shall well and truly pay all indebtedness incurred for labor and material furnished for said construction of said street improvement district No. 5, mentioned and agreed upon in said contract, then and in that event this obligation shall be null.

Said Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins, principal in said bond, had entered into a contract on the 23rd day of April, 1926, with the city of Wewoka for said paving, etc.; and that the work under said contract was performed and completed on September 29, 1926, and that there was a balance owing to the defendant in error, plaintiff below, for material furnished under said contract and bond in the sum of $249.69, together with interest thereon from August 3, 1920, until paid, at the rate of six per cent, per annum; and the plaintiff below prayed for judgment against the said Southern Surety Company and the said Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins, a copartnership, for said sum and interest.

Thereafter, a dismissal of said action was filed as against the defendant Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins, and the cause remained as against the defendant Southern Surety Company, and the defendant in error was granted permission to file an amended petition and did, on the 2nd day of May, 1927, file an amended petition as against the defendant Southern Surety Company, a corporation, and alleged the same allegations as in the original petition except that the contract of Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins for the construction 'of said work, after the execution of the bond, had been assigned to Wiggins & Company, a corporation, and that said assignment was made with the knowledge, consent, and approval of the Southern Surety Company, and the assignee performed and completed the work, and the material was furnished to the assignee under the same contract and bond sued upon in the original petition; prayed for the same amount as in the original petition.

*32 On the 12th day of September, a second amended petition was filed against plaintiff in error, based upon the same bond sued upon in the original and first amended petition, alleged the assignment of the original contract to Wiggins & Company, with approval of the Southern Surety Company (plaintiff in error), and alleged, further, a mistake was made in the original and first amended petition as to the name of the material furnished and as to the amount due for material furnished, and that the balance due under the contract and bond was $911.40; that through oversight and mistake the balance owing for stone was not included in the original and first amended petition; prayed for judgment for said amount with interest thereon from September 29, 1926, at six per cent, per annum.

.On the 17th day of April, 1928, an agreed stipulation as to the facts was filed in the cause, which is, in substance, as follows:

(1) .That the bond was executed by Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins, a copartnership, as principal, and Southern Surety Company, as surety.

(2) After the execution of said bond, and prior to the commencement of the construction of the work, under the contract referred to in said bond, the principal, Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins, assigned their contract to do said work to Wiggins & Company; however, the Southern Surety Company denied that they knew of or approved said assignment.

(3) The contract was performed and completed by Wiggins & Company on September 29, 1926.

(4) It was agreed that on May 2, 1927, defendant in error dismissed its petition against the said Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins and filed amended petition against Southern Surety Company for the same material set forth in the original petition, and for the same amount, and alleged that the material was furnished to Wiggins & Company.

(5) It was agreed that on September 12, 1927, more than six months after the completion of the work, plaintiff filed second amended petition herein against the Southern Surety Company alone, and alleged that the total amount of material furnished and used in the construction of the work under said contract was the amount of 2,128.36 tons of sand, and that the amount alleged in its original and first amended petition was 3,773,600 lbs. or 866.76 tons of sand was an error; and that in addition the plaintiff had furnished 616 tons (2,000 lbs. each) of stone, which was used in said work, and that through oversight and mistake the said tons of stone were not included in the original and first amended petition.

(6) It was agreed that the purchase price of the sand was $3,405.36 and the agreed price of stone was $1,136.85. The total price of sand and stone used and incorporated in said work was the sum of $4,542.21, and the total amount of credits — cash and freight —on sand and stone was $3,630.81, and that the balance due and unpaid was $911.40, with interest at the rate of six per cent, from completion of the work, September 29, 1926, until paid.

(7) It was agreed that the sand and stone referred to in the second amended petition were used and incorporated in said work under the contract referred to in the bond sued on and that the purchase price and credits are correctly set forth in said amended petition.

On the 28th day of May, 1928, all parties waived a jury and submitted the case upon the pleadings and the entire record and orders, and stipulation of agreed statement of facts and the deposition of T. E. Wiggins, which deposition was, in substance:

That he was a . member of the firm of Daugherty-Nichols-Wiggins, a copartnership, that he took the contract in regard to street improvement district No. 5 of the city of Wewoka, and thát the Southern Surety Company wrote the bond, and the partnership made assignment to the Wiggins Company, and sold the contract to do the work to Wiggins & Company, and the assignment was made after the execution of the contract and bond; and that he went to O. A. Wells, one of the general agents- in Oklahoma for the Southern Surety Company and who was also vice president of said company, and discussed the transfer with him, and asked him if it was’necessary to have some kind of agreement or something from Southern Surety Company, and he said it was not— to go right ahead. Wells understood that Wiggins & Company was going to finish the contract. That he, the witness, notified the city officials while they were in session of the assignment, and the engineers were present.

Judgment was rendered in said cause for the defendant in error and against the plaintiff in error in the sum of $911.40, together with interest thereon at the rate of six per cent, per annum from September 29, 1926.

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Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 254, 299 P. 211, 149 Okla. 31, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 163, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-surety-co-v-dolese-bros-co-okla-1931.