Westinghouse Electric Supply Co. v. Brookley

127 N.W.2d 465, 176 Neb. 807, 1964 Neb. LEXIS 236
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedApril 10, 1964
Docket35612
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 127 N.W.2d 465 (Westinghouse Electric Supply Co. v. Brookley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Westinghouse Electric Supply Co. v. Brookley, 127 N.W.2d 465, 176 Neb. 807, 1964 Neb. LEXIS 236 (Neb. 1964).

Opinion

Messmore, J.

This action was brought by Westinghouse Electric Supply Company, a corporation, plaintiff, against Jack Brookley doing business as Brookley Electric, and the American Casualty Company, a corporation, défendants, to recover the cost of material furnished by Westinghouse Electric Supply Company to Brookley Electric on a public works contract bonded by the American Casualty Company for the benefit of all persons, firms, or corporations who or which might furnish any materials or perform any labor for or on account of the construction to be performed under the construction contract and any amendments thereto, and they, and each of them, were made obligees thereunder with the same force and effect as if their names were written therein as such, and they and each of them might sue thereon, dated March 18, 1957, signed for Brookley Electric- by Jack Brookley, and American Casualty Company by Willard W. Weed, attorney in fact. Such a bond is provided for under section 52-118, R. R. S. 1943.

A jury was waived and trial was had to the court. The court found that on June 18, 1958, certain additional *809 work remained to be performed by Jack Brookley for Norris Rural Public Power District on a Rural Electrification Administration project designated Nebraska 77 AL Norris, Section 4; that the amount ascertained to be due Jack Brookley was conditioned on the performance of the additional work by him; that on June 18, 1958, the balance due Jack Brookley under the terms of his contract in the sum of $9,684.50, was not in line for payment; that although there was no stated reservation concerning the amount due Jack Brookley under the terms of his contract, Raymond H. Reed & Co., Inc., consulting engineers and agents for Norris Rural Public Power District, on June 24, 1958, issued written directions to Jack Brookley setting out the additional work to be performed by him, and that there was an actual withholding of the entire amount due Jack Brookley under the terms of his contract in the sum of $9,684.50 until after such additional work was actually completed by Jack Brookley; that such additional work as Jack Brookley was directed to complete by terms of a letter addressed to him on June 24, 1958, by Raymond H. Reed & Co., Inc., consulting engineers and agents for the Norris Rural Public Power District, was completed sometime after July 22, 1958, and sometime after that date the balance due Jack Brookley under the terms of the contract in the amount of $9,684.50, became liquidated and due in final payment of the contract; that the plaintiff’s action was commenced prior to the expiration of 1 year from final settlement of the contract between the Norris Rural Public Power District and Jack Brookley; that plaintiff’s failure to expressly plead such fact was not a fatal defect under the law and circumstances of this case; and that the plaintiff was entitled to have and recover from both defendants the principal sum of $18,806.01, with interest thereon at the rate of 6 percent per annum from the due date of July 2, 1958, and a reasonable fee for plaintiff’s attorneys fixed in the *810 amount of $2,500, and costs of suit. Judgment was rendered in the amounts aforesaid for the plaintiff.

The American Casualty Company’s motions for new trial were overruled. The defendant American Casualty Company appealed.

The plaintiff is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of Pennsylvania, and qualified to do business in Nebraska. The defendant Jack Brookley, doing business as Brookley Electric, is a resident of Waterloo, Nebraska, and the defendant American Casualty Company is a corporation engaged in the business of writing bonds for a consideration. On March 18, 1957, Brookley Electric as principal and defendant American Casualty Company, as surety, executed a contractor’s bond to Norris Rural Public Power District, wherein the defendants jointly and severally agreed to pay ail persons working on or supplying labor or materials for use in the construction of project Nebraska 77 AL Norris, Section 4.

The plaintiff’s amended petition alleged that on November 30,1956, plaintiff was requested to furnish quotations to Jack Brookley relating to materials for use in construction of a substation for Norris Rural Public Power District at Beatrice, Nebraska; that on or about March 20, 1957, Jack Brookley verbally instructed the plaintiff to order the materials for his use on the project known as Nebraska 77 AL. Norris, Section 4; that between the dates of May 17, 1957, and August 6, 1958, plaintiff furnished materials which were used on such project of the agreed fair and reasonable value of $37,-024.44; that on June 11, 1958, Jack Brookley paid $10,000 on the account, and on August 18, 1958, made a second payment of $8,000; that on August 6, 1958, plaintiff issued three credits on the account in the sums of $15, $25.92, and $177.51, leaving a balance due and owing plaintiff in .the .amount of $18,806.01, no part of which had been paid; and that on July 31, 1958, Norris Rural Public Power District finally accepted the substation located *811 at Beatrice, and approved the construction of the same so that the aforesaid balance of $18,806.01 became due and owing the plaintiff. The prayer was for such amount with interest at 6 percent per annum from the overage due date of January 1, 1958, a reasonable attorneys’ fee, and costs of suit.

The answer of the American Casualty Company admitted the identity of the parties here involved and the contractor’s bond as pleaded by the plaintiff; alleged that the final settlement of the contract between Jack Brookley, doing business as Brookley Electric, and the Norris Rural Public Power District was made more than 1 year prior to the filing of this action; and denied each and every other allegation of the plaintiff’s amended petition.

The plaintiff, for reply to the answers of Jack Brookley, doing business as Brookley Electric, and the American Casualty Company, denied each and every allegation contained in each of such answers except those which constituted admissions made by the plaintiff in its amended petition.

For convenience we will refer to the Westinghouse Electric Supply Company as plaintiff; to the defendant American Casualty Company as defendant; to Jack Brookley, doing business as Brookley Electric, as Brookley or Brookley Electric; to the Norris Rural Public Power District as the district; and to other persons by their names.

The district entered into contracts for the engineering of, the financing of, and the construction of electric transmission lines in the vicinity of Beatrice. The engineering contract between the district and Raymond H. Reed & Co., Inc., engineers, of Columbus, Nebraska, was executed November 19, 1956. The financing or loan contract was between the district and the United States government, acting through the Administrator of the-Rural Electrification Administration. The construction contract between the district and Brookley Electric in the original sum of $93,000 was executed by the contrac *812 tor Brookley and the district on March 18, 1957.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 N.W.2d 465, 176 Neb. 807, 1964 Neb. LEXIS 236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/westinghouse-electric-supply-co-v-brookley-neb-1964.