Title Guaranty & Trust Co. of Scranton v. Murphy

Citations

• 52 Wash. 190
• 100 P. 315
• 1909 Wash. LEXIS 1095

Syllabus

<p>Indemnity — Bonds — Building Contracts — Default of Contractor — Completion of Building by Owner — Liability. Indemnitors, who give a bond to a surety company to indemnify it against loss upon a contractor’s bond guaranteeing the construction of a building contract, are liable over to the surety company for the amount it was compelled by judgment to pay on default of the contractor, where the owner, under the terms of the building contract, took. possession and completed the building, putting another in charge of the construction without withholding the contract price until completion, although the indemnitors were not parties to agreements made with the surety company consenting to that arrangement; since the contract gave the owner the right to so do without such consent, the two bonds, the contract, and the plans and specifications definitely referring to each other and being all one transaction, and authorizing all that the owner did to complete the building himself.</p> <p>Same. In such a case, the indemnitors are not discharged because the building, which was to be a “brick veneer,” was referred to in the indemnitor’s bond as a “two-story frame dwelling,” it being the same building described in the contract, and properly described either way.</p>