Felin v. Futcher

Citations

• 51 Pa. Super. 233
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 209

Syllabus

<p>Contracts — Mistake—Building contract — Equity.</p> <p>1. Courts of equity will not relieve a party from the consequences of an alleged mistake which is purely the result of his own supine or inexcusable carelessness, where he has, within his own hands, every means to enable him to avoid such a mistake by the exercise of reasonable care; and especially is this so where his application for relief is postponed to a time when it is beyond his power to restore to the other party the situation he occupied before the contract was entered into.</p> <p>2. A builder submitted to a dealer in lumber and mill work plans and specifications for the lumber and mill work for a building operation. The dealer in turn submitted the detailed lists which he had figured out from the plans stating that he figured on “stock materials.” The builder without hastily accepting the bid made certain changes in the lumber and mill work which added considerably to the cost of each house. He submitted these changes to the dealer and asked for another bid. Subsequently the dealer offered to “furnish the entire lot” for a specified sum. This offer was accepted. Deliveries were begun at once and a large portion of the materials had been accepted by the builder and incorporated into the buildings when the builder was informed by the dealer that a serious blunder had been made in the preparation of the bid, in that thé price of the lumber amounting to between $3,000 and $4,000 had been inadvertently omitted. The builder was informed of the mistake but he stated that he realized that the bid was low, and that was why he had accepted it, but that if a mistake had been made, it was not his concern. The dealer delivered the remainder of the materials without making any further demand on the builder, and after the deliveries were completed filed a mechanic’s hen in which he charged the market price of the various articles at the time of their delivery. Held, that the dealer was not entitled to recover mor