Schuler-Haas Electric Co. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.
Cases that cite this one
58 later published cases cite this decision. The 25 that cite it most often are listed here.
- B.J. Thomas Gene F. Pitney Shirley Owens Alston Doris Coley Jackson Beverly Lee Vernon McFadden Jr. v. Gusto Records, Inc. G.M.L., Inc. (6th Cir. 1991)
- US Fire Insurance Company v. Martin Contractors LLC (United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama 2022)
- New York Bronze Powder Co. v. Benjamin Acquisition Corp. (Md. 1998)
- General Accident Insurance Co. of America v. Merritt-Meridian Construction Corp. (District Court, S.D. New York 1997)
- Mid Century Insurance Co. of Texas v. Lindsey (Tex. App. 1997)
- Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman, Inc. v. EI Constructors, Inc. (Conn. 1997)
- Chapman v. Ei Constructors, Inc., No. Cv 0040938 (Feb. 21, 1995) (Connecticut Superior Court 1995)
- F.W. Sims, Inc. v. Federal Insurance (District Court, E.D. New York 1992)
- Young v. Farmingdale Food Market, Inc. (In re Lasercad Reprographics, Ltd.) (United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. New York 1989)
- Pantone, Inc. v. Esselte Letraset Ltd. (District Court, S.D. New York 1988)
- Abex Corp. v. Vehling (Ind. Ct. App. 1983)
- Kahn v. Weldin (Or. Ct. App. 1982)
- Watson Construction Co. v. Reppel Steel & Supply Co. (Ariz. Ct. App. 1979)
- Beaumont Birch Co. v. Najjar Industries, Inc. (District Court, S.D. New York 1979)
- Welsbach Elec v. Mastec N. Am (N.Y. 2006)
- Welsbach Electric Corp. v. MasTec North America, Inc. (N.Y. 2006)
- Crdt Agricole Indosu v. JLH LLC (5th Cir. 2000)
- W.-FAIR ELEC. v. Aetna Cas. (N.Y. 1995)
- West-Fair Electric Contractors v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. (N.Y. 1995)
- David Fanarof, Inc. v. Dember Construction Corp. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1993)
- Levinson Steel Co. v. SCHIAVONE CONST. CO., INC. (District Court, S.D. New York 1986)
- Sturdy Concrete Corp. v. NAB Construction Corp. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1978)
- Kalwall Corp. v. K. Capolino Design & Renovation (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1976)
- Digesare Mech., Inc. v. U.W. Marx, Inc. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2019)
- Abyssinian Development Corp. v. Bistricer (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2015)
This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.
Opinion
Memorandum. The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.
The affidavits submitted by the parties on plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment tender no admissible proof of evidentiary facts relevant to the resolution of the asserted ambiguity in the terms of the payment bond. The present intervenors are of course bound by the record as they find it. Absent any relevant extrinsic evidence or the anticipation of the availability thereof, the resolution of any ambiguity in the written contract between the parties is to be determined by the court as a matter of law. (Hartford Acc. & Ind. Co. v Wesolowski, 33 NY2d 169, 172; Mallad Constr. Corp. v County Fed. Sav. & Loan Assn., 32 NY2d 285, 291.)
In this procedural posture we find no error of law in the construction of the written instrument made in this case by the Appellate Division. If as here there is no express language to the contrary in the written document (and no extrinsic evidence), the standard would seem to be that where payment is stipulated to occur on an event, the occurrence of the event fixes only the time for payment; it is not to be imported as a substantive condition of the legal responsibility to pay. In the submission to the Appellate Division and now to our court all parties concede that in the present instance plaintiff had fully performed all of the obligations required and expected of the electrical subcontractor—that in this substantive sense the claim of the subcontractor was "justly due”, within the language of the payment bond issued by defendant.
Chief Judge Breitel and Judges Jasen, Gabrielli, Jones, Wachtler, Fuchsberg and Cooke concur.
Order affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.