City of Pasco v. Pacific Coast Casualty Co.

Citations

• 101 Wash. 496
• 172 P. 566
• 1918 Wash. LEXIS 856

Syllabus

<p>Judgment — Bar — Matters and Parties Concluded—Principal and Surety. A judgment in favor of a city entered upon an ■ accounting between a contractor and the city is not conclusive upon the contractor’s surety in the city’s subsequent action to recover on the contractor’s bond, upon an issue as to the release of the surety by material alterations, extras, and the diversion of payments in contravention of the surety’s contract; as such issue was not litigated or before the court in the former action; and it is immaterial that the surety assisted the contractor in its defense of the former action.</p> <p>Principal and Surety—Statutory Bond—Construction. A contractor’s bond, reciting that it is given in compliance with the statute requiring bonds for the benefit of specified persons, must be held to be intended as a statutory bond, and not an agreement making the surety a joint principal with the contractor on city work without right to the defenses of a surety.</p>