Opinion ID: 1195492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The award to the State of liquidated damages.

Text: The contract provided for a completion date of July 25, 1968. The work was substantially completed on December 19, 1969. The contract provided for liquidated damages of $500 for every working day's delay in finishing the work. [6] The trial court found that the number of working days (as defined in the contract) during the period between July 25, 1968 and December 19, 1969 was 343, which finding is not in question on this appeal. The trial court also found that 35 of these working days were required for the performance of the welding work dealt with in Part IV of this opinion and were not includible in the delay time for which the State is entitled to liquidated damages. [7] The sum of $154,000 (308 days times $500) was awarded as liquidated damages. The Contractor's appeal raises with respect to the award the questions reviewed in Part I and in this part, but does not question the computation if those questions are resolved against the Contractor. The State's appeal contends that the 35 days attributed to welding work should not have been excluded in computing liquidated damages. But this contention is founded on the basic premise that this delay in the welding work was not attributable to the State. We reject this premise in Part IV, and the portion of the State's appeal related to the disallowance of liquidated damages for the 35 days attributed to welding work falls with it. The Contractor advances the proposition that liquidated damages may not be assessed for late completion of the contract because timely performance was impossible at the outset or the delay was caused or contributed to by the State. The Contractor's argument does not direct our attention to any action of the State which caused or contributed to a delay in performance, other than the requirement of the welding work to which we have referred. The findings of the trial court give full effect to this action of the State, as a partial excuse for the delay in completion. Accordingly, we have for consideration only the Contractor's contention that timely performance of the contract was impossible when the contract was entered into. Such impossibility, it is argued, would relieve the Contractor from liability for delayed performance under the principle expressed in RESTATEMENT OF CONTRACTS, § 456 (1932): [A] promise imposes no duty if performance of the promise is impossible because of facts existing when the promise is made of which the promisor neither knows or has reason to know. The Contractor's argument here retraces much of the ground we have covered. Impossibility of timely performance is asserted by reason of the contract specifications which required that certain work be done only when the temperature was 40° F and rising, or 50° F and rising. Additionally, there was evidence that a professional estimator employed by the State had advised the State that it would take 15 months to complete the work, if no winter work were done, while the contract required completion in 9½ months with no exception of winter work. Because of the weather data in the possession of the State when the contract was made, it is argued that the State knew, and the Contractor did not know or have reason to know, that weather conditions would make it impossible to complete the work in the time provided. The adequacy of the proof to support this contention has been fully reviewed in Part I. We there concluded that the Contractor failed to carry the burden of showing that the adverse weather conditions which were met during construction should have been forecast on the basis of the weather data in the State's possession. The Contractor falls even further short of showing that the predictability of such future weather conditions made them facts which rendered the timely completion of the contract impossible when it was entered into. In the cases to which the Contractor looks for support, the contract specifications were so defective that work done in compliance with the specifications would not accomplish the performance of the contract. For example, Grand Rapids Asphalt Paving Co. v. City of Wyoming, 29 Mich. App. 474, 185 N.W.2d 591 (1971), involved a paving contract which called for completion by November 15. The contract specifications prohibited the laying of pavement between November 1 and May 15, unless authorized by the engineer. The engineer refused permission to proceed during these winter months. The work was not completed until July 12 of the following year. It was found that excusable delays prevented completion of the contract before the prohibition of winter work became applicable, and that the contract was therefore impossible of performance when made, thus relieving the Contractor from liability for liquidated damages. But it was the prohibition of winter work, rather than the rigors of winter weather, which was viewed by the court as creating impossibility, and the case gives no guidance in adjudging the effect of adverse weather conditions. No other decision to which the Contractor refers has any greater applicability here. The circumstances under which this contract was entered into do not, on close inspection, furnish sufficient ground for relieving the Contractor from its undertaking as expressed in the contract. While prudent contractors may ordinarily require inclusion of a provision adjusting the performance date to reflect weather delays, the parties here were free to exclude such a provision from their contract and did so. The award of liquidated damages against the Contractor has not been shown to be erroneous under the propositions advanced by the Contractor. Since the inclusion of the award of liquidated damages in the judgment has not otherwise been called into question, it must be sustained.