Williams Engineering & Contracting Co. v. United States

55 Ct. Cl. 349, 1920 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 74, 1920 WL 628
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 24, 1920
DocketNo. 31929
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 55 Ct. Cl. 349 (Williams Engineering & Contracting Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams Engineering & Contracting Co. v. United States, 55 Ct. Cl. 349, 1920 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 74, 1920 WL 628 (cc 1920).

Opinion

Booth, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff company on April 14,1908, entered into a written contract with the proper officers of the United States to complete Dry Dock No. 4 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. George B. Spearin was the original contractor for the construction [369]*369of the dock, and had proceeded to some extent toward its completion when he encountered difficulties with the defendants, resulting in the annulment of his contract on November 14, 1907. The plaintiff’s obligation imposed upon it the necessity of tailing up the construction work on the dock at the point where Spearin left off. On April 14, 1908, the date of the execution of the contract in suit, the defendants contemplated changes of material consequence in the size and detail construction of the dock. The plaintiff was advised of this fact and did not vigorously enter into the performance of any substantial construction work on the same. What little it did do was of a general nature and more in anticipation of future events than material progress toward completion of its contract work. On August 31, 1908, supplemental agreement No. 1314-A was executed by the parties. This new contract embraced the contemplated changes and with subsequent additions increased the plaintiff’s compensation from $764,400 to $1,247,029.98 and extended the time for the completion of the contract work to 32 calendar months from the date of this agreement.

Without going into the infinite detail of the record, it is obvious from the briefs and argument of the case that the issue presented is in many respects similar to the contentions advanced in the case of Spearin v. United States, 248 U. S. 132. The plaintiff, with at least the passive acquiescence and approval of defendants’ officers, proceeded with its work until March 1,1909. On this date the defendant’s civil engineer in charge of the work manifested a grave doubt as to the plaintiff’s ability to complete the dock within the time allowed by the contract, and so notified the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Dock. The impending crisis, which must necessarily result in the annulment' of the plaintiff’s contract, was at this time averted by a mutual arrangement ’ of the parties, formulated in Washington, in the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, on March 12, 1909. At this formal conference the plaintiff acceded to the requests of the defendants, all of which were made in good faith and obviously intended to enable it to escape the penalty of forfeiture and facilitate its performance of the contract work. Four especial items were agreed to. The plaintiff employed [370]*370and vested in Civil Engineer Wentworth complete authority over and supervision of the contract work, deposited$100,000 in a designated depositary as a guarantee of its financial ability, agreed to the accomplishment of a certain percentage of contract work within 90 days, and obligated Civil Engineer Wentworth to keep the defendants informed in the event the plaintiff failed to supply him with sufficient resources, both in laborers, material, and funds, to complete the contract. ' This commendable composition of their mutual disputes and difficulties seemed destined to bring results, and did operate beneficially until the early part of June, 1909. While the plaintiff on numerous occasions complained of an excess of leakage and water fioAving into the area of excavation, nothing of a real serious nature had hindered their progress until June 19, 1909. As a matter of fact, the defendants’ officers made no serious objections to the plaintiff’s observance of the terms of the formal conference of March 12, 1909, until subsequent to the controversy, which must now be discussed.

Passing in a semicircle around the head of Dry Dock No. 4 was a 6-foot intercepting brick sewer, which had been constructed by George B. Spearin under his contract. On August 7, 1906, this sewer, during a heavy downpour of rain, burst and little or nothing had been done to repair the same. It remained substantially as it was after the storm — a seriously impaired and inefficient sewer. “Lying to the eastward about 150 feet, generally parallel with the axis of the dock, was a 7-foot sewer near the head of said site,” intercepted by the 6-foot sewer at a point outside the limits of the contractor’s lines of work. Near the point of interception with the 7-foot sewer, inside the 6-foot sewer, was a sluice gate of sufficient size and dimensions to prevent the flowage of sewage or water from the 7-foot sewer through the 6-foot sewer; and likewise in the 7-foot sewer was a similar sluice gate which, when closed, diverted the flowage from the 7-foot sewer into and through the 6-foot sewer. Both of these sewers were an integral part of the sewerage system of the city of Brooklyn, and notoriously inefficient. The officers of the navy yard, including those in charge of the construction of the dry dock, were fully [371]*371cognizant of tliis fact. George B. Spearin’s difficulties were wholly due to this condition, and for many years they had been the source of constant trouble and concern to those responsible for Government property at the navy yard. Civil Engineer Wentworth knew of and appreciated the danger incident to their presence and condition, for as soon as he came on the work he closed the sluice gate in the 6-foot sewer and opened the one in the 7-foot sewer, thus diverting all the flowage into the 7-foot sewer, and about the same time requested the defendants to erect a dam or sluice gate in the 6-foot sewer some 400 feet to the west of the dock, to prevent the water from flowing back therein at times of high tide in the East' River.

Civil Engineer Gregory, in charge for the defendants of the construction of Dry Dock No. 4, some time between June 19 and 23, 1909, ordered the plaintiff’s engineer, Went-worth, to open the sluice gate in the 6-foot sewer and close the sluice gate in the 7-foot sewer. Wentworth protested and declined to obey. A preliminary verbal order was supplemented by a written one. Still the company’s engineer declined to obey; but finally the sluice gate in the 6-foot sewer was opened and the 7-foot sewer was closed, resulting in a continual flowage of all the sewage theretofore passing through the 7-foot sewer into the 6-foot sewer, and a serious and damaging leakage into the plaintiff’s excavation. Not only was the plaintiff continually menaced by this steady and uninterrupted flowage of sewage thus diverted in its direction, but on June 28, 1909, a short but severe storm augmented the flowage to such an extent that the whole area of excavation was completely submerged and the plaintiff’s working plant substantially drowned out. It occupied the plaintiff’s time from the date of the storm until July 12, 1909, in removing the sand, pumping out the water, and restoring its machinery, due to the overflow and leakage in the 6-foot sewer. The sluice gate in the 6-foot sewer was subsequently closed and kept closed until July 16, 1909, when another very heavy precipitation of rain overflowed the 7-foot sewer, and while hindering the plaintiff to some extent, would not have proven serious save for the fact that the sluice gate in the 6-foot sewer was again at this time [372]*372opened, with its corresponding results. It was physically impossible in the face of this situation for the plaintiff to advance with its work with the necessary degree of rapidity and burdened it with such a quantity and quality of extra work that fully warranted apprehension of its inability to complete the dock, on time.

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Bluebook (online)
55 Ct. Cl. 349, 1920 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 74, 1920 WL 628, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-engineering-contracting-co-v-united-states-cc-1920.