Corcoran v. Huey

Citations

• 231 Pa. 441
• 80 A. 881
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 862

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Variance—Allegata and probata — Statute of frauds — Original undertaking — Guaranty—“We will see to it that you are paid.”</p> <p>1. In an action for work and labor done, the ease is for the jury, and a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff will be sustained, where the proofs show that the plaintiffs were subcontractors for certain work, and after they had completed about a third of it they refused to go on because of their distrust of the financial ability of the contractor, and that the defendants who were interested in the enterprise said to them that they should proceed with the work, and that the defendants would pay for the work already done as well as what remained to be completed. In such a case there is no variance in the allegata and the probata where the promise set out in the statement of claim was that if the plaintiffs would proceed with the work the defendants would see to it that the plaintiffs were paid, not only for the work done prior to the promise, but for such work as should be done thereafter.</p> <p>2. The words “We will see to it that you are paid” have no fixed legal meaning which so limits their force that only a secondary or collateral liability can be derived from them. Much depends on the connection in which they occur, and the circumstances attending their use. It is for the jury to say under all the evidence what they mean.</p>