Court Opinion

ID: 6545967
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-19 22:19:35.091658+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:55:58.050636
License: Public Domain

Hill, C. J., (dissenting.) 1. The bond provides: “The company shall not be liable for any damages on account of delay in the performance of any work or the furnishing of any material, unless the principal shall, without reasonable excuse, purposely and premeditatedly delay the completion beyond the time limited by the contract, and in no event shall the liability of the company on account of delay exceed a sum equal to five per cent, of the penal sum of this bond-.” Having expressly stipulated that delays, except a delay purposely and premeditatedly caused, should not create a liability on the bond, it seem to me that the surety company can not in good grace say that because it was not notified of delay it is released. The undisputed evidence is that the notice was given the next day after appellee learned that the contractor had abandoned the work; that wa.s the first time the surety company was interested, the abandonment falling within the clause of purposely and premeditatedly delaying the work and other clauses of the contract. To permit a bondsman to stipulate that delay in the work shall not create a liability against him, and then to release him because he was not notified of the delay, is a proposition which does not meet my concurrence. 2. The reversal on the facts is also, in my opinion, erroneous. I fully concur in the rule that where a mathematical calculation demonstrates that there is no basis for an action, although such action is sustained by witnesses swearing against matters demonstrably otherwise, then such evidence is not substantial evidence sufficient to sustain a verdict. A familiar illustration of this principle is where a witness with good eyesight and hearing in plain daylight looks along a level and straight railroad track and says he does not see nor hear an' approaching train as it bears down on him till he is struck. Then his evidence against such an impossibility of failing to see and hear is not substantial evidence, and will not sustain a verdict. But, as I understand this case, such is far from the facts. If the material and work done were worth no more than the contract price, then the calculation made would demonstrate the correctness of the court's position. But it is evident that this was a case of a contractor far underbidding the actual value of the work undertaken. It required $3,032 more to complete the building than the contract price called for. Appellee and two contractors testified to the state of the building when it was abandoned. They variously estimate it from 65 to 75 per centum finished. If this testimony was treating the contract price as the basis to make the estimate from, then the majority of the court is right; if they were referring to the real value of the building, then manifestly the majority is in error. As the two contractors were called to explain how much the whole building was worth and estimates they made to. complete it. the fair construction is that they were referring to the real value of the work and material, and not what may have been the contract price. Opinion delivered October 15, 1906. This question was submitted to the jury under an instruction given at instance of appellant; and I respectfully dissent from the holding that there are not facts enough to sustain the verdict.