Keller-Pike Co. v. Wetter

Citations

• 252 Pa. 340
• 97 A. 459
• 1916 Pa. LEXIS 618

Syllabus

<p>Contracts — Damages—Building contract — Contractor and subcontractor — Arbitration clause — Counterclaim—Effect of architect’s decision — Charge to jury — Harmless error — Appeals—Practice, Supreme Court.</p> <p>1. A party may not sit silent and take Ms chances of a verdict and then if it is adverse complain of the matter which, if an error, wonld have been immediately rectified and made harmless.</p> <p>2. On appeal from a judgment on a verdict for plaintiff in an action by a subcontractor against a contractor to recover a balance due on a building contract, where there was 'a counterclaim for delay, the appellant cannot be heard to complain that particular portions of the charge of the court did not clearly convey to the jury that the plaintiff was responsible for the delays of its subcontractors where the case was tried throughout upon the theory of such liability where the charge as a whole is not open to the objection and was not misleading but was a fair presentation of the case; and the court’s attention was not called to the alleged error at the trial.</p> <p>3. In such a case the plaintiff may recover for the installation of temporary lighting facilities alleged to have been installed by the plaintiff on the verbal order of the defendants and their superintendent, without showing a written order and without a prior offer and refusal to submit it to the decision of the architect, although the original contract between the parties for the erection of a mechanical plant provided that all questions in dispute should be submitted for decision to the architect and that all orders for extra work should be in writing, where it appears that gueh original contract did not include electrical equipment which was the subject-matter of a subsequent contract which contained no arbitration clause nor any provision requiring written orders for extra work and that the work for which recovery was sought was done after the second contract was entered into.</p> <p>4. In such