Shallenberger v. Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Co.

Citations

• 223 Pa. 220
• 72 A. 500
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 510

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Building contract — Stipulation for bond — Rescission—Damages.</p> <p>A building contract sealed and delivered stipulated for a satisfactory bond. The contractor without delivering the bond started on the work. Subsequently on the contractor being requested to furnish a bond he told the owner’s manager that application had been made to a trust company in another state for a surety bond in the stipulated sum. To this statement the manager said, “All right.” Two weeks later the owner gave the contractor three days’ notice to present the bond, or the work would be given to another contractor. Five days thereafter the bond was tendered, but the owner’s manager stated that they intended to do the work themselves, and did not wish to make the change again. The contractor was denied permission to proceed with the work on the premises. He thereupon brought suit. Held (1), that the case was for the jury as to whether there was a reasonable compliance by the contractor with the owner’s demand; (2) that it was not error to refuse consideration of the fact that the bond tendered was the bond of a foreign corporation, inasmuch as the owner did not put its refusal of acceptance on any such ground; and (3) that the damages were to be ascertained by taking the entire cost of the building to the contractor and deducting this sum from the contract price.</p> <p>Brown, Potter and Elkin, JJ., dissent.</p>