Taft v. Whitney Co.

Citations

• 85 Wash. 389
• 148 P. 43
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 847

Syllabus

<p>Contracts — Building Contracts — Approval op Architect. Wliere construction work is to be done to tbe satisfaction of a .third party, suck as an architect, the judgment of such third party, either in approving or condemning the work, must be exercised in an honest and independent manner, not arbitrarily or fraudulently; and, if the approval or condemnation of the work is arbitrary, it amounts to a constructive fraud.</p> <p>Contracts — Performance—Question for Jury. In an action by a subcontractor on a contract for putting in the cement floors of a large office building, whether the architects had been arbitrary in condemning the work and ordering its removal, and whether the work done by the subcontractor was in conformity to the plans and specifications, was a question for the jury, where the evidence showed he had completed the work on five of the floors, and the architects ordered them all out on the objection that they did not conform to sample and that the subcontractor had been employed without his approval, as the contract with the construction company required; and the subcontractor testified that whatever defects there were in the floors could have been corrected without their removal.</p> <p>Contracts — Performance—Evidence. In an action by a subcontractor to recover for work done which the architects condemned and ordered replaced by the principal contractor, evidence touching the question whether the floors constructed by the subcontractor were equally as good as those subsequently constructed by the principal contractor to replace them was admissible as bearing on the question whether the architects had considered the merits of the subcontractor’s work when they ordered its removal, or whether the reason they condemned it was because the contract had not been submitted to them for their approval.</p>