Brobst v. City of Reading

Citations

• 236 Pa. 627
• 85 A. 31
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 812

Syllabus

<p>Equity — Taxpayer’s bill — Injunction — Municipal contract — Variance from, specifications — Authority of city officials — Extra world.</p> <p>1. A contractor who enters into a contract with a city for the construction of a sewer pipe “in strict and exact accordance with” certain specifications and who deliberately substitutes a pipe differing materially from that required by the specifications, so that leakages result, is not entitled to compensation for the work required to prevent the leakage and it is immaterial that the engineer and board of public works of the city had assented to the use of this kind of pipe, since they are merely the agents of the city to act for it in the preliminaries leading up to the contract, to formulate the terms of the same and see that they were performed, but not to change such terms. The contractor is bound to take notice of the extent and limits of the powers of the agents of the city. Such work cannot be considered extra work.</p> <p>2. In such a ease a court of equity will upon a taxpayer’s bill enjoin payment by the city for such work, and it is no defense to such a bill that the contractor acted in entire good faith.</p>