W. L. Walker Co. v. Green Manor Construction Co.
W. L. Walker Co. v. Green Manor Construction Co.
Opinion of the Court
The defendant, the contractor for a new high school building in the town of Warwick, Rhode Island, subcontracted to the plaintiff the installation of chalkboards and blackboards for the sum of $17,000. The complaint in two counts alleged (1) that $1713.70 was due and owing for services rendered, and (2) that the amount retained from payments made, namely 10 percent of the contract price, was due to the plaintiff pursuant to the contract. The defendant denied both counts and made a motion for oyer for the subcontract, and the plaintiff filed a motion for disclosure. Thereafter, the plaintiff moved for summary judgment on the ground that no genuine issue of fact existed, and it filed an affidavit in support of the motion, setting forth the subcontract, performance under the contract, the prime contract price of $2,541,188, payment by the owner of $2,466,940.94, and that the plaintiff’s work did not fail to receive final acceptance by the defendant, the defendant’s engineers, or the defendant’s architects. The affidavit further
The defendant also filed a motion for summary judgment, on the basis that no genuine issue of fact existed, and filed therewith a counter affidavit and an affidavit setting forth the following provisions of the subcontract: “All payments covering subcontractor’s work and/or material shall be payable only after the contractor has received corresponding payments from the owner .... The subcontractor agrees to assume towards the contractor and does hereby assume for the portion of the project covered by this agreement all of the obligations, conditions and liabilities assumed by the contractor towards the owner under the aforesaid Contract Documents, and any other plans, specifications, drawings and documents relating to the aforesaid work which may be issued at any time during the course of the work, all of which are made a part hereof with the same force and effect as if fully set forth.” The affidavit further states that the owner city of Warwick refused to pay under the provisions of the prime contract and that a suit is now pending in the Superior Court of Rhode Island for the balance due on the prime contract.
Our Supreme Court has stated: “In passing on the . . . motion for summary judgment the trial court was limited to deciding whether an issue of fact existed, but it could not try that issue if it did exist. Bathkopf v. Pearson, 148 Conn. 260, 264 . ... If the affidavits and papers in the file (Practice Book § 299) raised an issue of law, it was not
There is error, the judgment is set aside and the case is remanded to be proceeded with according to law.
In this opinion Kosicki and Kinmonth, Js., concurred.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.