Barber v. Coburn
Barber v. Coburn
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiffs seek to recover the amount of a bill due them for labor and materials furnished to the Grahamite and Trinidad Asphalt Pavement Company in repairing the pavement of Pennsylvania Avenue in the city of Washington. This company had a contract with a board of commissioners constituted under an act of the Congress of the United States, whereby it agreed to pave the avenue, and it gave a bond, with sureties, to keep the pavement in good repair for the term of three years, and left in the treasury of the United States ten per cent of the cost of the work as a guaranty fund and an additional security to keep the pavement in repair, which fund was invested in bonds of the United States, all in accordance with the requirements of the act of Congress. The work for which the plaintiffs claim payment was done in repairing defects in the pavement before the expiration of the three years. Before this work was done by the plaintiffs, the bonds were assigned by the Pavement Company through a third party to the defendants, as security for a loan. After finishing the work, the plaintiffs endeavored to secure payment for it from this fund in the treasury of the United States, and one of the firm testified that he called upon the Treasurer and also upon the Secretary of the Treasury and notified each of them of the claim, and was promised by each that the bonds should not be delivered until they had an opportunity to file their claim. The defendant Coburn testified that
“ New York, Aug. 12th, 1880.
“ Gen’l W. W. Averill, Pres’t Grahamite & Trinidad Pavement Company.
“ Dear Sir: Our clients, James 0. Safford & Co., advise us that out of the fund held by the United States for securing repairs of Penn’a Ave. pavement, which was heretofore assigned to Libby, Bartlett, & Kimball, and to which through them we are entitled, they are willing to pay and will pay to the parties who have made repairs for which said fund is held as security the amount of said repairs, and save the Pavement Company harmless therefor, in the event they, Safford & Co., shall receive from the U. S. the said fund or bonds into which it has been invested.
“ Yery respectfully, etc., Shellabarger & Wilson.
“ We approve this. James O. Safford & Co.”
Mr. Wilson, of the firm of Shellabarger and Wilson, one of the defendants’ counsel who drew and signed this paper, testified that the reference to repairs in the paper was to repairs reputed to be made by the plaintiffs; and there was evidence indicating that there were other similar claims for repairs which had been presented to the Treasurer of the United States.
The auditor found, among other things, “that the treasury officials refused to pay the ten per cent reserved as security for the faithful performance of the contract with said Pavement Company until all the claims made for work and labor on said pavement within the three years mentioned in the Act of Congress heretofore referred to had been paid, and that the claim for which this action is brought was recognized by said officials as one of those claims, and said bonds were not given up to said Safford & Co. except with the consent of the plaintiffs, and that said agreement . . . was the consideration for said consent”; and that the agreement above quoted “ was understood by all the parties to it to include this claim of the plaintiffs.” In connec
At the trial, before a justice of the Superior Court, the auditor’s report was the only evidence offered, and the judge found from it that “ the agreement was made with an intention that the plaintiffs should know of it, and that the plaintiffs were informed of it and acted upon it.”
We are of opinion that there was evidence to warrant all of the auditor’s findings of fact, as well as the finding of the judge. Indeed, the auditpr’s findings of fact do not seem to have been attacked in the Superior Court by a request for a ruling or otherwise. Collins v. Wickwire, 162 Mass. 143.
At the time of making the writing relied upon by the plaintiffs, the defendants desired to obtain the bonds in the treasury of the United States. They could not get them without a with
We are of opinion that the judge of the Superior Court rightly ruled, upon the facts found by the auditor and by himself, that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover.
Exceptions overruled.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Amzi L. Barber & another v. Charles F. Coburn Same v. N. Marie Safford & another, administrators
- Cited By
- 1 case
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- Published