Whiteway v. State

Citations

• 19 Idaho 322
• 113 P. 98
• 1911 Ida. LEXIS 8

Syllabus

<p>Boad Contract — Construction of Specifications — Change of Contract — Estoppel — State Wagon Boad Commission — Claim Against the State.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the reporter.)'</p> <p>1. Where it is apparent from the specifications of a contract for the construction of a road that the roadbed was intended to be a certain number of feet in width, but the contract is silent as to the amount of excavation necessary to be made or the amount of yardage that would have to be moved in order to comply with the terms of the contract with reference to the width of the road, the specifications must control, and should be construed with reference to the width of road required, and not the amount of yardage moved in order to meet such requirement.</p> <p>2. In an action to recover compensation for extra work alleged to have been performed upon a road contract, which does not specify yardage of material moved as a basis of compensation, and where the evidence shows that neither party in making the contract considered yardage as the basis of compensation, the plaintiff cannot be heard to complain if in the building of the road the contractors moved a greater yardage than may have been indicated upon the stakes set to mark out the line of the road.</p> <p>3. In a contract for the construction of a road upon a mileage basis, where at the request of the contractors a change is made in the course of the road subsequent to entering into the contract, which change results in the expenditure of a larger sum of money than that originally estimated by the contractors, plaintiff is estopped from claiming payment for extra work performed by reason of such change.</p> <p>•4. A state wagon road commission is authorized to act only as a commission or through its authorized agent, and the unauthorized action of any individual member does not bind the state.</p>