Court Opinion

ID: 9831792
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 21:21:39.494636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:37.994957
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
Appellant charges that we have gone outside of the reasonable intendments of his petition and indulged in findings of fact wherein, on the allegations of his petition, we say that it could have been discovered and was the duty of the contractor to discover that the situs of the work was the site of an old sawmill; that the obstructions to the work as found inherently exist at the site of an old sawmill; that the contractor was required to take notice of the very conditions upon which his cause of action was.based; and—
“Tenth Ground of Error.
“The court erred in holding that the blueprint, as exhibited to the Houston Construction Company and other bidders, did not purport to show borings on all the work, but only a very small section, because said finding and holding is an express finding of fact, contrary to the true facts, in that it would be shown by the testimony in this case that the plans and blueprint exhibited and upon which the contract was founded was an express representation as to the condition of all of the work, and not only a very small section thereof, but made and exhibited as a fair illustration and correct delineation of the conditions at the point the work, was to be carried on, fully revealing to prospective bidders said conditions as applied to all the work to be done and not limited to any section thereof.”
In further explanation of this assignment, appellant says:
“The blueprint did not purport to show bor-ings at all; there is no indication on it of any borings ever having been made; there is no occasion for such a showing; it does not show borings anywhere; it does not attempt to show borings. It was not made for the purpose of showing borings; whether borings had been made or not was wholly immaterial, and the fact that they were made was not a thing to be considered by the contractor, and this blueprint does not purport to show borings on any portion of the work.”
It was not our intention to indulge in findings of fact. We tried, on a careful review *594of appellant’s petition and the original contract and blueprints filed by him as exhibits, to ascertain the conditions upon which the work was to be performed. Since the filing of our original opinion we have examined the ■ blueprint with counsel for appellant in an effort to determine its meaning. It shows what counsel calls and what is denominated on the blueprint “an average section.” This purports to show six pilings, as appellant says, and six borings, as we said, extending from the top of the work to be done down through the water and sand and resting in clay. At the earnest insistence of appellant we modify our description of this section of the blueprint denominated by us as “borings” and let them be what they may, saying, however, in connection therewith, that it is reflected on the blueprints that the pilings or the borings extend from the top of the work to be done through water, sand, and clay, with no showing of any obstruction whatever. In all the things that appellant calls to our attention by his propositions on this rehearing, we were trying to say that under the allegations of his petition appellee had not been guilty of any actionable wrong, and that the obstructions as actually found in the progress of the work were anticipated by appellee and contracted against by section (b) given in our original opinion, as follows:
“All loss or damage arising out of the nature of the work to be done, or from the action of the elements, or from any unforeseen cireum-. stances in the prosecution of the same, or from unusual obstructions or difficulties which may be encountered in the prosecution of the work shall be sustained and borne by the contractor at his own cost and expense.”
We based our conclusions on the allegations of appellant’s petition, aided and construed in the light of the exhibits filed by him as a part of his cause of action. Appel-lee submitted to the bidders on its work a form of contract with plans and specifications and blueprints showing in detail the work to be done. It was alleged by appellant that borings had been made at the site of the work, and that these borings showed water, sand, and clay as the substances through which the piling was to be driven. It was not alleged that borings had been made on all the work, and certainly there' is no statement in the contract that the borings made and the representations upon which the contract was let showed the conditions that would be found upon all sections of the work. But the allegations of appellant’s petition show nothing more than a disclosure of the facts found by appellee in the borings as made, and to guard against unforeseen obstacles, appellee protected itself by section (b), supra. If section (b), which is a part of appellant’s petition and a burden assumed by him, does not bear the construction we place upon it, it seems to us it has no office in the contract. As we again review appellant’s petition in the light of his exhibits, we think it means this and nothing more: That appel-lee had work to be done. It made borings upon which to base its plans and specifications. Not having examined all sections of the work for obstructions, it and the contractor anticipated the very conditions upon which this suit was filed by the provisions of section (b). Therefore, having made section (b) a part of his petition, and section (b) being an insurmountable obstacle against recovery, a general demurrer was properly sustained.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.