Court Opinion

ID: 9518802
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:02:27.777416+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:36:31.339845
License: Public Domain

White, C. J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The appellant was a general contractor for the government, and the appellee was a subcontractor, employed to install windows. The contract, of course, had to meet government specifications. The appellee submitted a proposal which by its terms was not to become a contract until it was signed by the appellant and delivered to appellee at its office in Gretna, *69Nebraska. The proposal was never accepted and this is admitted. The evidence is conclusive that the appellee was aware of the prime contract requirements for the window units. It is also clear that the appellee knew that the subcontract tendered to it, and executed and delivered by it, was not the same as the proposal which it had made.
The parties here were dealing at arms length, and we have no issue concerning unequal position, fraud, misrepresentation, or estoppel. It is my opinion that the parol evidence rule as stated by this court in many cases should be enforced. See, Master Laboratories, Inc. v. Chesnut, 157 Neb. 317, 59 N. W. 2d 571; Frentzel v. Siebrandt, 161 Neb. 505, 73 N. W. 2d 652. This case would appear to be complex from the involved arguments of the appellee herein. I feel that its position is nothing more than an ingenious attempt to weave its rejected proposal into the terms of the finally executed written subcontract. The attempt to place the proposal under the umbrella of the executed contract by the assertion of ambiguity cannot be accepted. These proposals or “prior negotiations” are inconsistent with the final contract which provided by proper interpretation for steel windows. In Gerdes v. Omaha Home for Boys, 166 Neb. 574, 89 N. W. 2d 849, this court said as follows: “The correct doctrine in that regard means that if there is a provision in one instrument affecting a provision of another, they will be given effect * * * so that the whole agreement actually made may be determined and effectuated. It does not mean that a provision of one document is imported bodily into another contrary to the intent of the parties- or the express provision of the latter. * * * The statement that contemporaneous instruments may be treated as one means only that this will be done when it will effectuate the intention and if the provisions of the two instruments if put together will not be incompatible. The court may not do violence to a complete, unambiguous contract by consolidating it *70with another writing if the effect of doing so would he to avoid an essential part of the contract.” (Emphasis supplied.)
As far as I can discover, there is no effective evidence to support a finding that any legal mistake occurred in the formation of this contract. In any event it is clear that if a party has taken a position that there is in fact a contract he cannot claim a mistake that negates the contract. His remedy is by rescission which is not pleaded or contended here. Sack Lumber Co. v. City of Sargent, 179 Neb. 848, 140 N. W. 2d 796.
For the reasons given, I dissent from the majority opinion. It is my conviction this judgment should be reversed and the petition dismissed.
I am authorized to say that Spencer, J., concurs in this dissent.