Texas Associates, Inc. v. Joe Bland Const. Co.

222 S.W.2d 413, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2048
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 6, 1949
DocketNo. 9783
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 222 S.W.2d 413 (Texas Associates, Inc. v. Joe Bland Const. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas Associates, Inc. v. Joe Bland Const. Co., 222 S.W.2d 413, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2048 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

GRAY, Justice.

Appellant purchased, from the War Assets Administration of the United States Government, seven buildings, all located on the Magnesium Plant site near the City of Austin, Texas, and, under the terms and conditions of sale set out in the “Invitation for Bids and Specifications of Sale of Buildings and Installed Equipment,” appellant was required to dismantle the buildings and remove all equipment, material and refuse from the premises. On August 21, 1947, appellant entered into a contract with appellees whereby appellees agreed to dismantle said buildings and convert the material therein into salvage and scrap and to load the same on railroad cars. The parties will be here designated as they were in the contract, namely: appellant as owner and appellees as contractors.

By paragraph one of the contract, the contractors agreed to perform all work and furnish equipment, tools, materials and labor necessary to:

(a) Disassemble and dismantle all machinery, equipment and appliances in the buildings in such manner that the greatest practical amount thereof could be salvaged as secondhand materials, and that which [416]*416could not be so salvaged would be saved as scrap.'
(b) Load all salvage on railroad cars blocked and secured for shipment in a manner sufficient to meet the requirements of the carrier.
(c) In like manner, load all scrap.
(d) Dispose of debris, allowing contractors one-third of the sales price of brick taken from linings of cells in addition to other compensation received by the contractors under the contract. Such brick to be stored on the premises or loaded on cars.

Paragraph 2 is as follows:

“(2) All work hereunder shall be performed under the supervision and in accordance with the directions of Owner’s Engineer. It is understood that the work will be so planned that salvage will be ready for shipment in time to meet sales contracts made by the Owner and that Owner will give Contractor reasonable advance notice so that contractor may plan the work in order to meet these requirements without extra cost or expense. Machinery, equipment and appliances will be dismantled either by disconnecting the component parts or by cutting or burning into, smaller parts as may be required to render them most valuable as salvage. If the Contractor is of the opinion that any direction- given by the Engineer is unreasonable to such an extent as to necessarily increase the cost of the work, he shall forthwith, but without stopping or delaying the work, notify the Owner in writing of Contractor’s objections, specifying the actions complained of and the reason therefor. The Owner shall have cars spotted for loading, at the nearest switch, as soon as they can be procured after Owner is notified by Contractor of his loading requirements and dates of loading. Contractor agrees to .perform all of said work in a good, workmanlike manner, in accordance with the directions of the Owner’s Engineer and with all necessary care to recover all salvage reasonably possible. The Contractor will prosecute the work with due diligence to completion within four (4) ‘months after this date. Except as herein otherwise provided, the Contractor will comply with the requirements of the aforesaid ‘Invitation for Bids and Specifications of Sale of Buildings and Installed Equipment.’ ”

Paragraph 3 states the contract price to be: (a) an amount equal to $30 per ton for salvage; (b) $15 per ton for scrap. And recites payment of $45,000 to contractor as an advance payment on the contract price. For each ton of salvage loaded on the cars and shipped, as determined by railroad weights, and within ten days thereafter, contractor was to be paid $15 cash and credited with $15 against the advance payment. And for each ton of scrap loaded and weights determined as above, there was to be a credit of $15 against the ádvance payment. In the event the total amount of scrap exceeded 1,000 tons, the contractor was to receive $22.50 per ton for each ton in excess of 1,000. The owner guaranteed that the total amount of salvage and scrap would be not less than 3,000 tons.

Paragraph 4 provides the contractor would furnish a performance bond, and carry property damage and compensation insurance.

Paragraph 5 provides for the owner to take over in the event the contractor became bankrupt or made default.

. Paragraph 6 provides for the arbitration of disputes; and paragraph.7 provides that the waiver of any defaults by either party shall not constitute a waiver of any subsequent default.

Paragraph 8 provides that the contractor shall maintain a superintendent on the job and in charge of the work to whom directions could be given by the owner or its engineer.

The contractors undertook performance. The work was not completed at the end of the four-month period, but under an alleged oral agreement, the work was continued by the contractors until February 20, 1948, when the contractors quit and thereafter instituted this suit to recover on a quantum meruit.

A trial to a jury was had and the jury found: (1) that the contractors proceeded with the work with reasonable diligence; (2) that the work was performed in such manner that the greatest practical amount of salvage would be obtained; (3) that dur[417]*417ing the period from August 21, 1947, to December 21, 1947, contractors requested the owner to furnish sufficient cars to meet contractors’ loading requirements; ,(4) that owner failed to furnish such cars as soon as they could- have been procured; (5) that such failure to furnish cars caused contractors extra cost and expense; (6) that but for such failure of owner to furnish sufficient cars, contractors would have finished the work by December 21, 1947; (7) that contractors protested the failure of owner to furnish sufficient cars; (8) that contractors, were diligent in making such protests; (8-a) , that after making such p'rotests contractors did not agree -to continue the. work and accept as compensation therefor the unit prices set out in the contract; (9) that owner’s vice-president promised contractors that if they would continue the work after owner had postponed shipment of unsold salvage, owner would see that contractors would lose no money by reason of the delay; (10) that contractors continued the work until February 20, 1948, in reliance upon- such promises; (11) that contractors would have stored or loaded the brick taken from the cell linings, if directions had been received relating thereto; (12) that the reasonable value of all the services performed by contractors from August 21, 1947, to February 20, 1948, if paid now in cash is $112,000; (13) that after December 21, 1947, contractors did not agree to continue the work and accept as compensation therefor the unit prices set out in the contract of August 21, 1947; (14) that owner did not. notify contractors of the requirements of a sales contract with Union Pipe and Machinery Company in time to allow contractors to meet such requirements without extra cost and expense; (IS, 16, 17 and 18 were conditional issues and were not answered) ; (19) that the acts, conduct or silence of contractors would not

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Bluebook (online)
222 S.W.2d 413, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-associates-inc-v-joe-bland-const-co-texapp-1949.