Cunningham v. Philadelphia

Citations

• 245 Pa. 181
• 91 A. 233
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 856

Syllabus

<p>Contracts — Construction—Court and' jury — Extra work — Moral obligation.</p> <p>1. Upon an issue raised by the traverse of a return to a writ of alternative mandamus in which the question to be decided was whether a payment directed by the councils of a city to be made to contractors for extra work included items which the contractors were required to furnish under the contract for the city, it was held that the case was for the jury under proper instructions where it appeared that the work undertaken by the city comprised the furnishing of pipe, the digging of trenches and the laying of pipe for its filtration system, that there were one hundred and eighty-eight specifications included in the whole work; that a part only of this work, the digging of trenches and the laying of pipes, was awarded to the plaintiffs, and that plaintiffs were required to do much work clearly outside of their contract, and that this work was done by the direction of the engineer of the department with the expectation both of plaintiffs and of the engineer that plaintiffs would be paid for it as additional work.</p> <p>2. In such case it was held that the jury were properly instructed to make an allowance in the nature of damages for the detention of the money which had been appropriated and directed to be paid the plaintiffs by an ordinance of council since although there were legal objections to the plaintiffs’ claim for payment for extra work not covered by the written contract, there was a moral obligation on the part of the city to pay it which became a legal obligation when its payment was assumed and directed in the manner provided by law.</p>