State ex rel. Dahlquist v. Van Wyck

Citations

• 20 Wash. 39
• 54 P. 768
• 1898 Wash. LEXIS 462

Syllabus

<p>HIGHWAYS — AUTHORITY OF BOARD OF CONSTRUCTION — PAYMENT OF CONTRACTOR — ISSUANCE OF WARRANTS — ASSIGNMENT.</p> <p>Under Laws 1893, p. 301, § 33 (Bal. Code, § 3948), providing for the establishment of a system of improved roads, a board of construction appointed thereunder with power to inspect the work and suspend it in case of disagreement until the engineer can decide the controversy, is not authorized to cancel and annul a contract made by the county or declare a forfeiture thereunder, but may merely suspend construction pending the engineer’s determination whether the work is being done according to contract and the proper material is being used.</p> <p>Under Laws 1893, p. 301, § 31 (Bal. Code, § 3946), providing that when the board of construction shall file with the clerk of the board of county commissioners their certificate stating the total amount of work done or material furnished upon the construction of a public road,. the clerk shall thereupon draw a warrant upon the county treasurer in favor of the contractor for the amount due, such amount becomes vested in the contractor, by virtue of the statute, upon the filing of the required certificate.</p> <p>A contract stipulation that no assignment of a claim due a contractor by a county for work done in the construction of a public road shall create any cause of action against the county, or prevent it from settling with the contractor, does not excuse a failure to deliver warrants to a party designated by the contractor, when the contractor is entitled under the statute and the action of the board of construction to the warrants.</p> <p>County warrants in payment of sums due a contractor for work done in the construction of public roads, under Laws 1893, p. 301, which provides that such warrants, upon the filing of the required certificate by the board of construction, shall “thereupon” issue, may be drawn at once, although by general statute the auditor is granted ten days’ time in which to draw warrant