De Mattos v. Jordan

Citations

• 20 Wash. 315
• 55 P. 118
• 1898 Wash. LEXIS 526

Syllabus

<p>BUILDING CONTRACT-CERTIFICATE OF ARCHITECT-LIABILITY OF SURETIES ON BOND—ESTOPPEL.</p> <p>Under a clause in a building contract, providing that the expenses incurred by the owner for furnishing materials and finishing the work abandoned by the contractor should be audited and certified by the architect, the sureties on the building bond cannot be rendered liable for sucb expenditures unless the architect’s certificate is made in writing.</p> <p>Where such certificate is obtained several years after the completion of the work, and subsequent to the commencement of an action against the sureties, it comes too late, as it should have been obtained in the first place, as a basis for the claim against the sureties.</p> <p>The fact that sureties on a building contractor’s bond had denied liability upon the bond would not estop them from alleging the owner’s failure to furnish the architect’s certificate of expenditures, where the building had been completed by the owner after abandonment by the contractor.</p>