Griffin v. Salt Lake City
Griffin v. Salt Lake City
Opinion of the Court
By direction of the respondent, Salt Lake City, its street committee caused to be published the following notice for bids for sprinkling streets in Salt Lake City:
‘ ‘ Proposals for Street Sprinkling. The sprinkling committee of the city of Salt Lake, will receive bids for sprinkling the streets of Salt Lake until Monday, May 18, 1896, as follows: separate bids must be returned for one, two and J three years’ contracts:
“Bids will be for sprinkling districts one, two, three and five, as shown on the plat in the office of the city engineer, and must also give a pric eper week per block for such extra sprinkling as the City Council may hereafter determine on.”
■ The plaintiff Griffin, in response to this notice, made the following bid:
“Salt Lake City, Utah, May 18, 1896.
“E. M. LeProhon, chairman, street sprinkling com-| mittee. I
“Dear Sir: — I beg to offer the following bid for street sprinkling, as per your advertisement hereto attached:
“I'will sprinkle districts 1, 2, 3 and 5, viz.:
“One year contract, $1,775.00 per month.
“ Two years’ contract, $1,625.00 per month.
“Three years’-contract, $1,450.00 per month.
“All other blocks that may be sprinkled to be at'“$2.45 per block per week, for time actually sprinkled, if regular size; others proportionately the same. This last to apply in case either proposition is accepted. Find certified check, favor J. L. May, city treasurer, as required. I have everything in readiness to cover those districts af once, if either proposition is accepted.
“Respectfully submitted,
“J. H. Griffin.” 1
“reports of select committees.
‘We, your committee of the whole, beg leave to report as follows in the matter of the bids of J. H. Griffin, Frank Harrigan and B. F. Be dm on, for sprinkling the streets of this city, which were referred to your committee at the last session of the council:
“Upon due consideration, we recommend that the bid of J. H. Griffin to sprinkle the streets of the city on a three years’ contract at fourteen hundred and fifty dollars ($1,450.00) per month be accepted, with the understanding that the said contract shall begin on the first day of June, 1896, and shall expire on the 31st day of December, 1898. Bespectfully submitted,
M. E. Mulvey, Chairman.”
This report was adopted by the city council. The draft of a contract for street sprinkling was submitted to the City Council at the same meeting and approved, and the mayor signed the contract on the part of the city, and the plaintiff signed it in the form as drafted by the city attorney, without consulting his own attorney, believing that the contract drawn embodied the contract as made.
The plaintiff in his complaint alleges that by mutual mistake of the parties a material stipulation of the terms agreed upon was omitted from the contract with reference to sprinkling outside districts. The clause in regard to sprinkling outside the districts 1, 2, 3, and 5, as it was drawn by the city attorney and now appears in the contract, reads ¿s follows:
The plaintiff contends that such contract, in order to express the agreement of the parties in that respect should read as follows:
“It is further mutually agreed by and between the parties hereto, that if at any time during the life of this agreement said first party shall determine to have the streets or walks within the limits of the city, and not embraced within the sprinkling contract aforesaid, sprinkled, the work of sprinkling the same shall be awarded to and shall be performed by the plaintiff at the stipulated price of $2.45 per week per block.”
The respondent claims that under the contraer, as drawn, the plaintiff, Griffin, was bound to do all the extra sprinkling the city might call upon him to do, yet the city was not bound to give him any of the extra sprinkling, but could give it to anyone as it chose. In other words,
It appears to us that the contract between Griffin and the city was evidenced by the printed advertisement for bids to sprinkle the streets named and such other extra sprinkling as might thereafter be required, the bid of Griffin, and the acceptance of such bid by the city. These three documents were in writing, and there is no claim that there was ever any modification of such writing. The city attorney was directed by the city to place the contract in proper form to conform to the agreement. The advertisement was for bids for sprinkling districts 1, 2, 3, and 5, as shown on the plat, and the person bidding was required to give the price per week per block for Such extra sprinkling as the city council might afterwards determine to have done, and separate bids were required for sprinkling on one, two, and three years’ contracts. At this time certain parts of the city were included in the four districts named. While other parts of the city were in no districts. Consequently under the advertisement bidders were required to cover the streets of the city outside of the four districts by their bids. The city evidently desired to keep within its own control the sprinkling of all outlying streets and blocks. It was therefore desirable to obtain the price per week for sprinkling each block, and the bidder was required to include the outlying streets as a part of his bid.
This report was adopted by the city council. By the proposition made Mr. Griffin offered to sprinkle districts 1, 2, 3, and 5, at $1,450 per month for three years, and to sprinkle all other streets that the city should determine to have sprinkled at $2.45 per block per week, and this propo
This view is strengthened from the fact that the parties themselves placed this construction upon the contract. During the first year of its existence the city council did
It is held to be a general rule that when in the performance of a written contract both parties thereto by their acts, place a practical construction upon it which is at variance with its literal meaning, that construction will prevail over the language of the contract. Dist. of Columbia v. Galligher, 124 U. S., 505; Stone v. Clark, 1 Metc., 378.
In further confirmation of the appellant’s contention, the testimony of the plaintiff, the mayor, and many members of the city council, so far as pertinent, tended to s.how that the agreement as contended for by the appellant, should have gone into' the contract, but for inadvertence and mutual mistake, the writing was made to express a meaning which was not intended and had never been suggested by any party to the contract.
From the whole record, we are clearly of the opinion that the written contract should be reformed and corrected, as prayed for by the plaintiff in his complaint.
The cause is reversed and remanded with directions to the trial court to modify the findings, and set aside the
Plaintiff should recover costs of hoth courts
Reference
- Full Case Name
- J. H. GRIFFIN v. SALT LAKE CITY
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