United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Jefferson Davis County

Citations

• 114 Miss. 474
• 75 So. 247

Syllabus

<p>1. Highways. Contracts to work roads. Liability on bonds.</p> <p>Where a road contractor refused to carry out his contract with the county to work certain roads and tendered his resignation, in which he stated that the contract was void, that he was carrying it out at a great financial loss and could not continue to do so, he broke his contract and the surety on his bond became liable for the actual damage sustained by the county as the result of an admitted breach of the contract.</p> <p>2. Highways. Contracts to work roads. Liability on bond.</p> <p>Where a road contract made the members of the board of supervisors the sole judges of whether the roads were being worked according to the plans adopted, the fact that the board refused to report the roads as properly worked and failed and refused to pay the contractor for work done, did not prevent a recovery on the contactor’s bond for damages from the abandonment of the contract by him, where the members of the board did not act fraudulently.</p> <p>3. Highways. Contract to work roads. Damages for breach.</p> <p>Where a county contracted with defendant to work certain roads for the years 1912, to 1916, for thirty-four dollars and fifty cents a mile for 1912, and nineteen dollars and ninety-five cents a mile for the other years, but defendant did not maintain the roads for 1912, in accordance with his contract, and was paid only a part of the amount he would have received if the roads had been properly worked, and he later abandoned the contract, and the county relet the work for the remaining years to other contractors. In such case, while the new contractors probably bid more than they would have bid if defendant had maintained the roads in 1912, according to his contract the measure of damages for his breach was nevertheless the difference between the cost of the work under the new contracts and the amount for which defendant agreed to do the work for the years 1913 to 1915, inclusive, without taking into consi