Conneaut Lake Agricultural Ass'n v. Pittsburg Surety Co.

Citations

• 225 Pa. 592
• 74 A. 620
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 706

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Arbitration clause — Engineer.</p> <p>1. Where a building contract provides that all differences arising under or in reference to the agreement or to its performance or in any way connected with the work shall be referred to the engineer of the owner, whose decision shall be final and binding, the engineer's decision as to all matters relating to the performance or nonperformance of the work, is binding and conclusive; and in such a case an engineer has power to award damages for the delay in completing the work.</p> <p>2. Agreements to refer disputes to arbitration will be sustained and upheld, where the power to pass upon the subject-matter in dispute is clearly given to the arbitrator by the terms of the agreement.</p> <p>3. A suit brought by the owner against the contractor and subsequently discontinued is not a waiver of the arbitration clause in the building contract; and the bringing of such a suit cannot be set up as a defense in a subsequent action against the surety of the contractor.</p> <p>4. Where under the terms of a building contract it is provided that all disputes shall be referred to an arbitrator and the arbitrator meets and notifies the contractor and the surety of the place of meeting and neither the surety nor the contractor appear, the surety in a suit on the award is not in position to raise questions which if they had any merit should have been raised by the contractor and which were clearly within the jurisdiction of the arbitrator chosen by the parties to the contract to decide all matters of difference between them connected in any way with the work.</p>