Magnolia Warehouse & Storage Co. v. Davis & Blackwell
Magnolia Warehouse & Storage Co. v. Davis & Blackwell
Opinion of the Court
This suit was instituted by the appellees J. H. Davis and R. C. Blackwell, as partners, against the Magnolia-Warehouse & Storage Company, a corporation, for damages for breach of contract. The facts thereof which are material to this opinion are detailed below:
Plaintiffs alleged that the defendant company being desirous of building a warehouse,, advertised for bidders for the excavation work for the foundations, and asked that bids be made with reference to the site of the lot, the distance and place to which dirt should be hauled, and at the same time designating a gully which was to be filled, and the balance of the dirt to be loaded on cars to be placed by the defendant on the railroad track near said lot; that plaintiffs’ bid was accepted and contract executed, and that they made all necessary preparations for doing the work, but the work .was stopped by defendant by notifying plaintiffs that defendant could not, and would not, furnish and place the cars ■ for loading the dirt as agreed on between them. The defendant pleaded general demurrer, general denial, and, further: That the contract was in writ--ing, and provided that the dirt should be-hauled to such place as might be designated *671 by defendant, and set up article 13 of the contract, which, is as follows: “Art 13. .The contractor agrees that if the wort to be done under this contract shall be abandoned, or if at any time the engineer shall be of the opinion, and shall so certify in writing to the owner, that the said wort is unnecessarily or unreasonably delayed, or that the said contractor is willfully violating any of the conditions or agreements of this contract, or is not executing said contract in good faith, or fails to show such progress in the execution of the work as will give reasonable grounds for anticipating its completion within the required time, the said owner shall have power to notify the contractor to discontinue all work, or any part thereof under this contract; and. thereupon the said contractor shall cease to continue said work or such part thereof as the said owner shall designate, and the said owner shall thereupon have the right, at its discretion, to contract with other parties for the completion of all or any part of the work left uncompleted by said contractor, or for the correction of the whole or any part of said work. And in case the expense so incurred by said owner is less than the sum which would have been payable under this contract, if the same had been completed by the said contractor, then the said eon-tractor shall be entitled to receive the difference; and in ease such expense shall exceed the last said sum, then the contractor shall, on demand, pay the amount of such excess to the owner; but such excess to be paid by the contractor shall not exceed the amount of security for the performance of this contract.” That the plaintiffs neglected, failed, and refused to begin work, as provided by the contract, and that thereupon they notified plaintiffs that, unless they proceeded at once, defendant would proceed to do the work, etc. That plaintiffs refused to proceed, and that thereupon defendant let the work to another.
Plaintiffs admit the execution of the contract, but that before and-at the time of the execution of the contract the defendant designated a gully near the said lot which was to he filled with the .dirt taken from the excavation, and that defendant designated and agreed orally to furnish sufficient cars and place them on the railroad track near the work upon which the remainder of the dirt was to be loaded by the plaintiffs, and further agreed to keep switch engine and crew ready to handle the cars as needed. And in support of their (plaintiffs’) contention set up article 8 of the contract sued on, which' is as follows: “The contractor agrees to furnish the tools, appliances, and labor necessary to excavate the earth on the west side of the property where it is proposed to build a warehouse, and transport the same to points that have been indicated; it being the purpose to grade the property to a uniform and true plane. The total number of cubic yards to.be moved is estimated at twenty thousand.” Judgment for plaintiffs for $1,500, from which this appeal is taken. .
First error assigned: “The trial court erred in continually permitting the plaintiffs (over the objection of defendant and exception there taken as shown by the record) to alter, vary, and contradict the written contract made between plaintiffs and defendant by oral testimony of what was said by and between the plaintiffs and the representatives of defendant company before the signing and execution of the aforesaid written contract, said written contract being the very basis of the plaintiffs’ claim, and the ground of defendant’s defense” — because no written contract can be added to, altered, varied, changed, or contradicted by parol testimony. Article 8 of the contract (set out in full above) provides the contractors agree to furnish tools, etc., necessary to excavate the dirt and to transport the same to points that have been indicated. In article 20 will be found this provision: No payment for overhaul will be allowed, and that the contractors have examined the plans and the site of the work and understand fully the distance to which the earth will have to be hauled.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Magnolia Warehouse Storage Co., Inc. v. Davis Blackwell. [Fn&8224]
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published