Case ID: ny-sup-ct_11/html/0809-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Learned, P. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

JOSEPH N. GREENE, Respondent, v. JOHN W. THOMAS, Appellant.
    Appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiff, entered on the report of a referee.
    The plaintiff entered into a contract with Cornell University to erect and finish a certain building. Subsequently he made a subcontract with the defendant, by which the defendant, for a certain fixed sum, was to do all the carpenter work, find materials therefor, and do the painting, etc., in said building. The defendant commenced the work, and, after he had done a part thereof, abandoned the same without good cause. The plaintiff completed the work and sued the defendant for damages for the breach of the contract. The referee before whom the cause was tried allowed the plaintiff, among other things, $900 for his services in superintending the completion of the carpenter work. The only objection raised on this appeal was to this item of $900.
    The court at General Term held, that as, if the defendant had fulfilled his contract according to the agreement, the plaintiff would not have been obliged to devote any of his own time to the superintendence of the workmen doing the carpenter work; and that as the referee had allowed this, item to the plaintiff, it must suppose that he found the superintendence to be necessary, and it was therefore a proper item to be allowed, and the judgment should be affirmed.
    
      George F. Danforth, for the appellant.
    
      B. A. Benedict, for the respondent.
   Opinion by

Learned, P. J.

Present — Learned, P. J., Boardman and James, JJ.

Judgment affirmed, with costs.