Central Trust & Savings Co. v. Henry Kraan Furniture Co.

Citations

• 57 Pa. Super. 221
• 1914 Pa. Super. LEXIS 180

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Building contract — Bond—Insurance of. mortgages — Default of subcontractor — Contract of indemnity.</p> <p>1. In a suit by a trust company against a subcontractor, who had defaulted in a building operation, to recover moneys expended by the trust company in completing the subcontractor’s work, no judgment can be entered for plaintiff on demurrer, where it appears that the bond given by the subcontractor to the plaintiff recited that at the request of the defendant plaintiff had issued its policies of insurance to various mortgagees to secure them against loss by reason of mechanics’ liens, and it also appears that the defendant had in his contract with the principal contractor agreed not to file any mechanics’ liens, but there is nothing in the bond or in the policies requiring the plaintiff to do any work on the building, and no averment in the statement that the buildings as they stood with the uncompleted work of the subcontractor, would not have sufficiently protected the plaintiff against the obligations which it had assumed by its policies to persons to whom the policies were issued; and this is the case although in the building contract the general contractor was given the right to do the work if the subcontractor failed, and the bond itself provided that the contract of the defendant with the general contractor should inure to the benefit of the trust company.</p> <p>2. Such a bond is in truth and in fact an obligation of indemnity only, and does not require the obligor to do any specific work or to bear the expense thereof in case it should be done by any other than the subcontractor.</p>