Keating v. Edgar
Keating v. Edgar
Opinion of the Court
The only question presented by the record on this appeal is whether the findings support the judgment. We think they do
Judgment affirmed.
We dissent: McKinstry, J.; Ross, J.
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent. This is an application for a writ of mandate to be directed to William M. Edgar, auditor of the city and county of San Francisco, commanding him to audit a claim of the petitioner, Keating. The proceeding was instituted in the superior court for the city and county of San Francisco, where judgment was rendered for the applicant, from which the defendant appeals.
The case is substantially as follows:
The applicant was awarded a contract, as the lowest bidder, for certain work to be done on the new city hall. The applicant entered into a contract; performed the work according to such -contract. The lines, levels and heights referred to. in the contract were furnished him after considerable delay by one Clifford, then the architect of the new city hall, whose duty it was to furnish them. At or about the time that the applicant had finished the work aforesaid, “in accordance with the lines, levels, and heights as aforesaid, furnished by said architect Clifford, the said Clifford was discharged for incompetency from his position and place as such architect,” and he thereupon ceased to act. Thereafter, one Hatherton was duly appointed architect for the new city hall in the’place of Clifford, and entered on the duties of his office. “That said Hatherton, after assuming the duties of his position as such architect, and after he had so entered into the said office or place, discovered and ascertained that the lines, levels and heights so furnished to the petitioner as said contractor by said Clifford, as aforesaid, were erroneous, and that the work done and performed by petitioner according to the lines, levels and heights, so as aforesaid furnished by said architect Clifford, would not answer the purpose or purposes for which the same was intended or designed, and was not in accordance with the work called for under said contract and the specifications thereto attached, and thereupon the architect Hatherton
The facts above stated are so found by the court. We are of opinion that the court below erred in rendering judgment for the petitioner. It was provided by the contract that the lines, levels and heights were to be furnished by the architect, and that the contractor must observe them. The contract binds the contractor “to set out the lines and levels for all the works, and must be responsible for the correctness of such
When the architect Hatherton refused to do what, under the facts found, it was his bounden duty to do—that is, approve the work and grant his certificate to the applicant, that such applicant might get his pay—the only course left open for the applicant was to take steps to compel him to do so. This he might have done, under the facts of the case, by an application to the proper judicial tribunal to compel the architect to do what the law made it his duty to do. Having failed to do this, and yielding to the demands of the architect that he should remodel the work, which he did at great expense, does not and cannot enlarge his rights. The architect had no right under the law to impose any such terms on a contractor who had done all that his contract required him to do. Such demands were unjust, illegal and arbitrary on the part of the architect, and the law did not require a submission to them by the applicant. When the work was completed the board of commissioners could only allow to him what it did allow, viz., the original amount provided in the written contract to be paid. This, it is found, was paid him, and under the contract and the facts found this was all the law allowed him, and all the law justified the board in allowing him. The statute is explicit in its requisition: “Nor shall a contractor be allowed a claim for work done or material furnished not embraced in his contract”: Stats. 1875-76, see. 14 (Act of March 24, 1876, p. 465). If the board had allowed a sum greater than that agreed by the contracting parties to be paid when the work was performed, such action would have been unauthorized, in conflict with the provisions of the statute just above cited and an inexcusable dereliction of duty on the part of its members. If, after the completion of the contract in accordance with the directions of the architect Clifford, it became necessary for any reason to remodel the work, or have it altered in any respect, it should have been
Reference
- Full Case Name
- KEATING v. EDGAR, Auditor, etc.
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Mandamus.—Findings Held to Support the judgment.