Opinion ID: 267450
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: H. E. Luther.

Text: 49 Plaintiff Luther was the subcontractor for the masonry work. He was to be paid $59 per 1000 face brick and $118 per 1000 stone. The total to be paid under the subcontract was $83,077.63. 210 F.Supp. at 513. Luther began work in August 1957 but claims that he was run off the job on December 23, 1957. The district court found that the prime contractor's action in terminating this subcontract as of December 23 was wrongful, 210 F.Supp. at 511. Williams and Dunlap said they terminated the subcontract because Luther was not paying his bills, but the district court found that there was nothing in the subcontract that would permit the prime contractor to terminate for that reason; the district court noted that the only recourse open to the prime contractor was to retain out of any payment then due, or thereafter to become due, an amount to sufficiently and completely indemnify it. 25 50 The letter of termination, written on December 20, 1957, stated in part: 51    it is not our responsibility to pay Mr. Luther's bills but, as required by our contract, it is Mr. Luther's responsibility to present us with paid bills for all labor and material and taxes at any time we might require in order that he might make a draw against his contract. We have requested that Mr. Luther present us with these paid bills and consider that if he fails to present us with these paid bills that he has breached his contract, specifically, the provisions of Article 14. If these bills are not presented to us by 9 AM Monday, December 23, we shall consider Mr. Luther's contract breached and shall man the job with men in our own employ charging the cost thereof against Mr. Luther's contract. 210 F.Supp. at 512. 52 The prime contractor contends that the termination was authorized by Article XXIV of the subcontract which allows take-overs and charge-backs after 48 hours' written notice to the subcontractor should the [sub] contractor at any time refuse or neglect to supply a sufficiency of properly skilled workmen or material of proper quality, or fail in any respect to prosecute the work with promptness and diligence, or fail in the performance of the agreements herein contained   . 1 Appendix, p. 117. The prime contractor argues that the subcontractor failed in the performance of the agreement by failing to present bills on demand as required by Article XIV. See note 25, supra. He urges that the letter quoted above supplied the timely notice required by Article XXIV. 53 We agree with the district court that the defendant prime contractor wrongly terminated the subcontract. Although the language in Article XXIV, fail in the performance of the agreements herein contained, is broad, we do not think that the contract may be terminated under Article XXIV by any failure by the subcontractor to comply with any condition of the subcontract, as urged by the prime contractor. We think that Article XXIV concerns the failure to perform the actual work required under the subcontract; this is borne out by the limiting language in the latter part of the Article which provides that upon the neglect, refusal, or failure of the subcontractor, the prime contractor shall be at liberty, after 48 hours written notice to the Contractor, to provide any such labor or materials and to deduct the cost thereof from any money then due.    (Emphasis added.) Therefore, we conclude that Article XXIV may not be used to terminate the contract for the subcontractor's failure to present paid bills on demand as required by Article XIV. 54 Although the district court found that the defendant prime contractor had breached the subcontract by its wrongful termination, the court found that Luther was not making any profit off the job and that he did not sustain any loss by the breach. See 210 F.Supp. at 513. The court also found that had the subcontractor been allowed to complete the contract, he would have lost some $16,500. But the court awarded damages for some of Luther's equipment confiscated by the prime contractor after the contract was wrongly terminated. The amount of this award was $1,500 with interest. 210 F.Supp. at 514. However, Luther contends that pursuant to a memorandum decision by the district court entered on September 17, 1962, the amount of this recovery was increased to $2,220. Record p. 167. 55 Luther contends that he is entitled to a balance due for work allegedly completed and accepted by the prime contractor prior to the termination of the subcontract. He states that he submitted his last progress payment on December 18, 1957, showing work in place in the sum of $55,088.04. And he urges that since the amount of previous payments to him was $41,550.55, he is entitled to the $13,537.49. His theory is that the prime contractor has not advised him that any of the work on the completion schedule of December 18 was unacceptable and, therefore, as a matter of law it is accepted by the prime contractor. 56 We noted in connection with Autrey and Goad's appeal that the prime contractor has the duty to act upon the draw schedules between the time they are submitted, before the last day of the month, and the time payments are due, on or before the fifteenth of the subsequent month. However, the Luther draw was submitted on December 18; therefore, we do not think the prime contractor had a duty to act by the time the contract was terminated on December 23. Payment was not due at the time of termination since Luther had not submitted its schedule before the last day of the month as required by Article XIII. 57 Luther also contends that the record establishes lost profits on the uncompleted portion of the contract in the amount of $12,989.59. However, we have carefully read that portion of the record cited to us [Vol. 5, pp. 1308-13] and conclude that it does not establish that he is entitled to profits. That testimony is in essence an estimate by Mr. Luther of what his profits would have been had he completed the contract. In cases where damages are claimed for having been deprived of profits, the contemplated profit must be proved to be reasonably certain and not merely conjectural or speculative, see Mabry v. Midland Valley Lumber Co., 217 La. 877, 47 So.2d 673, 677 (1950), or an estimate. Guidry & Swayne v. Miller, 217 La. 935, 47 So.2d 721, 723-724 (1950). The judgment in Luther v. Williams & Dunlap, Civil Action No. 7233 below, is affirmed. 58