Henry v. Aetna Indemnity Co.

Citations

• 36 Wash. 553
• 79 P. 42
• 1905 Wash. LEXIS 627

Syllabus

<p>Indemnity — Bond Guaranteeing Building Contract — Notice of Acts Involving Loss — Waiver. Where an indemnity bond guaranteeing a building contract stipulated for notice to the surety of acts which “may involve loss,” the failure of the owner to notify the surety that the contractor had failed to meet payments for labor and material will not avoid the bond, where the agents of the surety gave the owner the first notice thereof, and requested payments thereafter to be made through them, and where the general agents had notice of this course, since the notice is thereby waived.</p> <p>Same — Judgment Against Principal — Notice to the Surety to Defend — Estoppel. Where a surety company guaranteed, by the bond, the faithful performance of a building contract in which the contractor agreed to furnish all the material, and is given due notice to defend an action commenced by material-men to foreclose a lien for material furnished to the contractors, a judgment obtained in good faith against the contractors, the principals in the bond, establishing the claim and foreclosing 'the lien, is binding upon the surety, to the same extent that it binds the contractors, and, in an action on the bond, estops the surety company from claiming that there was no breach of the contract.</p> <p>Same — Limitation of Actions. An action upon an indemnity bond guaranteeing a building contract, which required suit to be brought within six months of the first breach of the contract, is commenced in time if within six months of the time the building was to be completed, and within six months of the plaintiff’s knowledge of any breach of the contract.</p>