State Ex Rel. Hernleben v. Detroit Fidelity & Surety Co.

21 S.W.2d 494, 224 Mo. App. 22, 1929 Mo. App. LEXIS 54
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 11, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 21 S.W.2d 494 (State Ex Rel. Hernleben v. Detroit Fidelity & Surety Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Hernleben v. Detroit Fidelity & Surety Co., 21 S.W.2d 494, 224 Mo. App. 22, 1929 Mo. App. LEXIS 54 (Mo. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

ARNOLD, J.

These are companion cases instituted in the name of the State of Missouri to the use of Lawrence Hernleben (16724) and L. H. Gratz (16725). The defendant is a corporation authorized to do business in the State of Missouri and engaged in furnishing bonds for contractors and in the course of its business defendant became surety on a bond of one Cole Jobe, to secure the performance by him with the Highway Commission of Missouri of certain road work and construction on State Highway No. 12 in Moniteau County.

Relator Hernleben operated a garage and in connection therewith sold automobile supplies, and for labor materials furnished Jobe, an itemized bill was rendered in the aggregate sum of $412.07. This account, in part, was made up of various items of gasoline, oil and grease, aggregating $290.99, for which amount defendant concedes liability. The remaining items of the account, aggregating $121.08. consisted of spark plugs, gaskets and other automobile truck parts, and labor for repairs upon the trucks used by the contractor in the performance of the contract in question.

The court refused an instruction limiting the liability of defendant to $290.99. The court heard the case without the aid of a jury and rendered judgment for the full amount, to-wit, $412.07. A motion for á new trial was overruled and defendant has appealed.

The facts in the Gratz case (No. 16725) are similar to those in the Hernleben case, excepting the amount sued for and the nature of the items making up the total amount. Gratz appears to have been a blacksmith, or mechanic, capable of repairing and keeping in working order automobile trucks. The petition in that case is based upon an account for labor and materials furnished Jobe, the contractor, while executing the contract in question. As in the Hernleben ease, an itemized account was presented, in which a balance of $316.70 was claimed as due. All of the items of the said account, with the exception of some bolts of the value of $3.10, *24 used in splicing together sections of a culvert used in the road work, were for repairs to machines and machinery, such as graders and plows, belonging to, or used by Jobe in the performance of his contract.

The defendant concedes liability for the value of these bolts, but denies liability upon the. remainder of the account. Defendant asked an instruction, which the court refused, limiting defendant’s liability to $3.10. The court rendered judgment for plaintiff in the sum of $307.85, the total amount asked, less some items not now in question.

A motion for a new trial was overruled and defendant has appealed.

The two cases are briefed as one and they are here considered together. There is no dispute as to the facts in either case and the basis of each ease is a bond which, insofar as it relates to payment for labor and materials, is as follows:

“The condition of this obligation is such that if the above bounden principal . . . shall pay all lawful claims for materials used for labor performed in the construction of said highway under the operation of the laws of the State of Missouri, then this obligation is void; otherwise it shall remain in full force and effect.”

The statute, pursuant to the provisions of which the bond in question was required, is found in the 1925 Session Laws of Missouri, p. 127, and reads as follows:

“Section 1. Repealing and re-enacting section 1040, Revised Statutes, 1919. — That section 1040, article III, chapter 8, of the Revised Statutes of Missouri 1919, be, and the same is hereby repealed, and a new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 1040, and to read as follows:

“Sec. 1040. Contractors for public work required to give bond.— It is hereby made the duty of all officials, boards, commissions, commissioners, or agents of the state, or of any county, city, town, township, school, or road district in this state, in making contracts for public work of any kind to be performed for the state, county, town, township, school or road district to require every contractor for such work, to execute a bond to the state, county, city, town, township, school or road district, as the case may be, with, good and sufficient-sureties, and commissioners, or agents, and such bond, among other conditions shall be conditioned for the payment of material, lubricants, oil and gasoline used in or consumed in the construction. of such work and for all labor performed in such work, whether.by subcontractor or otherwise.”

The only question for determination here is whether the court erred in holding that the defendant, as surety on the road bond given under this statute, is liable for repairs to and spare parts for machinery used by the contractor in the performance of his *25 contract. The controversy is over that part of the statute requiring the bond to be — “conditioned for the payment of material, lubricants, oil and gasoline used in or consumed in the construction of such work and for all labor performed in such work, whether by subcontractor or otherwise.”

And in the consideration of this question we have not the benefit of any prior decision construing section 1040, Revised Statutes 1919, as amended in 1925. It has been held by appellate courts of this State that materials which constitute part of the contractor’s plant, or his tools or implements with which he does his work, do not fall within the term “materials used in the construction of the work. ’ ’

We are benefited in this respect by the clear reasoning of Graves, J., in his opinion in the case of Kansas City to use of Brick Co. v. Youmans, 213 Mo. 151, 112 S. W. 225: The opinion holds the provisions of the bond did not extend to rope, picks, pick handles, chains, buckets, spades, shovels, track spikes, rubber boots, etc., though worn out in the service, the action being against a surety upon a completion bond for the construction of a sewer. The court said, l. c. 181:

“It is urged by the intervening petitioner, Richards & Conover Hardware Company, that the evidence shows that the articles were entirely consumed in the work on this job and for that reason they fall within the term ‘materials used therein,’ as found in the contract. There are some loose expressions in several cases that lend color to the contention made by this respondent, but we are not impressed therewith, and will not follow such cases. Tools, implements and appliances used by the contractor in the prosecution, of the work are not materials used therein in any reasonable sense of. the term. Tf a pick, shovel, pair of boots, hoisting rope, or- any other implement, tool or appliance used by the contractor on the work is worn out or broken, is does not follow that such an article becomes material used therein within the meaning of the contract. The contract presupposes that the contractor has and will furnish upon his own account the necessary tools, implements and appliances with which to perform the work.”

It is true that the opinion from which we have just quoted was written prior to the amendment of 1925 (supra). But we think the language of the amendment does not alter the situation. The opinion of the St. Louis Court of Appeals in Wiss v. Indemnity Co., 219 Mo. App. 568, 282- S. W. 164, was written after section 1040, Revised Statutes 1919, was amended.

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Bluebook (online)
21 S.W.2d 494, 224 Mo. App. 22, 1929 Mo. App. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-hernleben-v-detroit-fidelity-surety-co-moctapp-1929.