Bottoms & Sons Co. v. Bonsor

Citations

• 73 Pa. Super. 415
• 1920 Pa. Super. LEXIS 29

Syllabus

<p>Contracts — Building contracts — Performance to satisfaction of owner — Failure to perform.</p> <p>In an action on a note given in payment for the amount due for the reconstruction of two houses, the defense was that the work had not been done in accordance with the contract and that the consideration therefor had failed. In such case it was not error for the court to charge that if the defendant’s dissatisfaction of the plaintiffs’ work was in good faith and was genuine as distinguished from mere capriciousness or dishonesty the verdict should be for the defendant; but if, on the other hand, the objection was not in good faith or sincere, but was merely capricious and not found in truth the verdict should be for the plaintiffs.</p> <p>Contracts — Optional remedies — Bonds to secure contract — Admissibility — Evidence.</p> <p>The fact that a bond had been given to secure the performance of a building contract is not admissible in evidence in a suit on a note given in payment for services rendered under the contract. It was not a matter affecting the defendant’s right, to introduce the defense disclosed by the evidence, whether there was some other remedy to which he might have resorted and which he had not used. The defendant was entirely within his rights in presenting a defense of a total or partial failure of the consideration for the note, and that right was not affected by the fact that he also took the precaution to secure himself by a bond against the default, with which he charged' the plaintiffs.</p>