Stewart v. Mark

Citations

• 230 Pa. 626
• 79 A. 809
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 660

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Consideration—Promissory notes — Renewal of note — Waiver —Delay in completion.</p> <p>1. Where a contractor agrees to complete his work by a day specified for which he is to receive two promissory notes, one payable at three months, and the other on completion of the work, and he accepts at the end of the three months a renewal of the first note, he cannot allege as a defense in a suit against himself for failure to complete the work at the time specified the failure of the plaintiff to pay the first note, inasmuch as his acquiecsence in the renewal was a waiver of plaintiff's original default.</p> <p>2. Where a subcontractor enters into a contract with a city contractor to do all the work in grading a street by a time specified, and the contract provides that should the subcontractor require an extension of time, the city contractor would “use his best endeavor to have an extension of time granted,” the court will construe the stipulation with respect to an extension of time simply as a provision against unexpected contingencies which sometimes occur in work on the streets, and will not enforce it where it appears that the subcontractor made no effort to complete the work within the time limit; that he employed a wholly inadequate force, and that his dilatoriness continued, notwithstanding repeated complaints made to him, until the contractor was compelled to discharge him and complete the work himself.</p> <p>3. In such a case the subcontractor cannot set up as an excuse for his own delay that the contractor when he took over the work was himself guilty of great delay in completing it.</p>