Corcoran v. Huey
Corcoran v. Huey
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
A company chartered and organized to supply with gas two towns, and the intervening territory, all in Chester county, entered into an agreement with the Philadelphia Engineering Company for the construction of its system. The latter company contracted with the plaintiffs in the present action for the digging of the trenches for the pipes between the towns. The evidence introduced on behalf of plaintiffs was to the effect that they entered upon their work, and had proceeded with it until about one-third was completed, when, having received no pay for the work already done, they became distrustful of the financial ability of the engineering company to meet its contract obligations with them; that they then decided to abandon their contract, and communicated this fact to these defendants who were financially interested in having the work completed; that the defendants then promised that if they (the plaintiffs) would go on with the work, they (the defendants) would pay for the work done and for the work to be done; and that relying upon this promise plaintiffs resumed operations and completed the work. The action was brought to recover from the defendants on the alleged promise, and a verdict for the full amount of the plaintiff’s claim resulted.
Except as it was error to refuse the motion to strike out the testimony of the three witnesses called on behalf
Reference
- Cited By
- 11 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Evidence — Variance—Allegata and probata — Statute of frauds — Original undertaking — Guaranty—“We will see to it that you are paid.” 1. In an action for work and labor done, the ease is for the jury, and a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff will be sustained, where the proofs show that the plaintiffs were subcontractors for certain work, and after they had completed about a third of it they refused to go on because of their distrust of the financial ability of the contractor, and that the defendants who were interested in the enterprise said to them that they should proceed with the work, and that the defendants would pay for the work already done as well as what remained to be completed. In such a case there is no variance in the allegata and the probata where the promise set out in the statement of claim was that if the plaintiffs would proceed with the work the defendants would see to it that the plaintiffs were paid, not only for the work done prior to the promise, but for such work as should be done thereafter. 2. The words “We will see to it that you are paid” have no fixed legal meaning which so limits their force that only a secondary or collateral liability can be derived from them. Much depends on the connection in which they occur, and the circumstances attending their use. It is for the jury to say under all the evidence what they mean.