The Law of Contracts: A Text-book for Technical Schools of Engineering and Architecture

John Cassan Wait

J. Wiley & Sons, 1913 - Construction contracts - 331 pages

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Selected pages

Title Page

Table of Contents

Index

PART	1

The Introduction to a Contract	2

Designation of the Parties	3

Only Parties to Contract are Bound	4

The Representatives after Death or Changes Effected by Law	5

Contracts for Personal Skill of Contractor	6

Executors Liability on Contracts and for Torts of Party	7

Assignee of Contractor or Owner	8

Instances where Contracts have been Made for Things in Which there Was a Monopoly	160

Conditions and Stipulations as to the Performance and Completion of the Work	161

Conditions and Stipulations as to Performance and Completion of the Work	164

Bond and Certified Check to Insure the Execution of the Contract and Surety for Faithful Performance and Completion of the Work	167

Proposal to be Accompanied by Consent of Sureties	168

Information to be Furnished and Conditions to be Imposed when Contract is Executed	169

Acceptance of Proposal and Execution of ContractRight to Reject Bids	170

Power to Determine Responsible Bidder is Discretionary	171

What Contracts and Claims are Assignable	9

What Interest does an Assignee Take	10

Third Parties Strangers and Beneficiaries	11

Third PartySureties	12

Third Parties Sureties are Not Liable to Them	13

Changes which will Not Release the Surety	16

Surety Discharged by Other Causes	17

Persons as Parties Who May Contract 23 Disabilities to which Persons are Subject	18

Imbeciles Inebriates and Lunatics	19

Married Women	21

Other Conditions Affecting a Persons Capacity to Contract	22

Either Party under Duress	23

Principal should be Made the PartyIf Agent Assumes the Obligation He will be Liable	24

Proof of Agency	25

Names of Parties in Body of Contract should Correspond with Signatures	26

Agents should be Duly Authorized to Contract	27

An Agent or Fiduciary can Have No Interest in the Contract	33

Cases where Appropriation has been Exceeded	39

Irregularities Need Not be Caused by Contractor	46

CHAPTER II	54

From Whom Consideration must Come	61

There must Be a Lawful SubjectmatterThe Promise must Be to Perform	65

The Undertaking must Not Have for its Object the Creation of a Monopoly	71

Immoral Contracts	77

Manner of Coming to an UnderstandingOffer and Acceptance Make a Con	83

CHAPTER V	91

Statute of Frauds	97

Special Agreements Relating to Lands	98

Contracts for the Creation Assignment and Surrender of Estates in Land	99

Application of the Law to Construction Work	100

Statute of Limitations 112 Objects and Reasons for the Statute	102

Contracts to be Performed within One Year	103

The Letter of the Law is Applied Strictly without Regard to Hardship or Mis fortune	104

Agreements to Waive the Protection of the Statute	105

Injury Concealed by Fraud so that Right of Action was Not Known	106

Bad Work Concealed When under Inspection and Supervision of Engineer	107

Law of Contracts Proof of Terms of Coilateral Contract Parol or Verbal Agreements 122 Parol Evidence Not Admissible to Vary or Contradict a Writ...	108

When Parol Evidence will be Received	110

Parol Evidence to Explain Obscure and Ambiguous Contracts	112

Parties may be Held to the Construction They have Themselves Adopted	113

Witnesses cannot Testify as to the Meaning of a Contract	114

The Intention of Parties should Control	115

Independent Oral Agreements	117

Subsequent Promises Must be Founded upon a Consideration	118

PART II	120

The Advertisement or Notice to BiddersInvitation to Contractors and Bu	122

The Form of Advertisement to be Adopted	123

As Regards the Advertisement or General Notice to Bidders	124

Instructions to BiddersWork is Undertaken by What Authority and under What Restrictions	126

Necessity for Restrictions and Regulations	127

Instructions should Give All Necessary Information to Bidders	129

There must Be Competition in Compliance with the Statute or Charter	130

Public Officers cannot Legalize nor Ratify Void Contracts	131

SECTIONS PACE 142 The Legislature May Ratify Contracts	132

Labor Laws and Limitations must be Complied With	134

Form of Notice and Instructions	136

Bidders may be Required to Possess Certain Qualifications 148 There Must be No Collusion or Other Efforts to Prevent Competition	139

148a Possibility of the Law Being Used to Escape Onerous Contracts	142

What is Good Evidence of Eraud and Collusion of Public Officers and Ser vants	143

Oath as to Truthfulness of Statements	144

Propriety of Certain Requirements and Restrictions	148

There should be a Standard for Comparison of Bids	149

The Bid should Contain neither More nor Less than is Called for by the Instruc tions Plans and Specifications	150

Contracts Must be Strictly According to Terms of Advertisement Plans and Specifications by which Bids were Invited	152

Right to Make Changes and Alterations Reserved	156

Works Whose Cost Exceeds a Certain Amount Within the Statute Charter or Ordinance	157

What Work Comes Within the Statute	158

State or City to Furnish Certain Things at a Specified Price	159

Discretion Must be Exercised in Good Faith	172

Bids Rejected but Reconsidered Without a New Advertisement	173

Whether Lowest Bidder can Compel an Award to Himself	175

Public Officer may be Enjoined from Illegally Awarding Contract	176

92	177

Liability of Public Officers for Acts Discretionary or Quasi JudicialMisdeeds in Awarding the Contract	179

Liability of Public Officers for Ministerial Acts	180

Bids Cannot be Recalled	181

What Constitutes an Acceptance of the Proposal or an Award of the Contract	182

Bid to Furnish Materials	185

Form of Proposal for Public Work	186

CHAPTER VII	192

In Absence of Agreement or Pledge Owner may Exercise his Own Preference	193

Implied Agreement to Remunerate Bidder for His Labor or to Award Con tract to Lowest Bidder	194

ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS EMPLOYMENT CHAPTER VIII	196

Dismissal or Discharge of an Employee	198

Gross Moral Misconduct Pecuniary or Otherwise	199

Habitual Negligence or Conduct Calculated to Injure Masters Business	200

Incompetence or Incapacity	201

Condonation of Employees Offense	202

Duty of Discharged Employee to Seek Other Employment	203

No Recovery for Extra Work Unless so Agreed	205

What Constitutes an Employment of an Engineer or Architect ?This is Often a Difficult Question	206

What Is a Performance of a Contract of Service ?	209

Recovery for Services Rendered	210

CHAPTER IX	213

Incorporeal Property in Architectural and Engineering DesignsCopyright and Patentright	214

Rights of a Purchaser to Incorporea Creations	217

Rights of an Author Inventor or Designer when in the Employ of Another	218

Things Made or Created Outside of Office Hours	220

Employees Right to His Inventions	221

What Is Invention and Who Is the Inventor ?	222

Instances of Invention between Employer and Employee	224

CHAPTER X	225

That the Employee Possesses Skill is Implied from the Undertaking to Act	226

SECTION PAGE 230 Determination of Skill Possessed or Want of Skill	227

Professional Man must Possess Ordinary Skill and Exercise Ordinary Care	228

Negligence on the Part of an Agent	229

Skill Required of Specialists	230

Owner may Offset His Damages Against Sum Due Engineer or Architect for Services	231

Architect or Engineer must Give Such Careful Superintendence and Inspec tion as to Prevent the Contractor from Making Material Omissions and Va...	232

Engineer and Contractor or Architect and Builder Jointly and Severally Liable	234

Engineer and Architect are Liable to their Employer and to Nobody Else	236

Liability for Acts of Assistants	237

CHAPTER XI	238

Attempts have been Made to Discriminate between Judges in Court and Judi cial Officers	239

Engineer or Architect must Not Act Fraudulently	241

Engineer is Liable to His Employer when He may Not be Liable to Con tractor	242

Engineer or Architect may Owe a Double Dnty to His Employer viz as an Arbitrator and a Professional Man	244

249a Engineers or Architects Knowledge Is the Employers Knowledge	245

CHAPTER XII	247

County Officers and Their Liability	248

94	249

Public Officers and Their Liability upon Contracts Executed for the State	250

Officer or Employee Is Responsible for His False Representations	251

Commissioners of Public Works and Their Liability	253

CHAPTER XIII	257

If Architect or Engineer Supervises and Directs Work He may Have a Lien in Some States	258

Engineers or Architects Rights under the Stockholders Liability Acts	262

Esteem in which Experts are Held by Bench and	268

Use of Written Memoranda and Copies Thereof	274

Some Questions Held Not to Require Experts to Determine	282

Qualifications of an ExpertWho may Be an Expert Witness	289

292a Judicial Notice	296

Experts Knowledge Experience and Character may be Inquired Into	302

95	305

Copyright

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Full view - 1910

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Common terms and phrases

14 Amer acceptance action advertisement agent agreed agreement amount assignment authority benefit binding bond builder building certified check charter commissioners completed consent consideration construction contractor corporation court court of equity damages debt discharge duty employed employer employment Ency enforced engineer or architect erection estimate executed fact fraud held illegal infra Iowa jury labor liable liquidated damages lowest bidder Mayor ment Minn N. W. Rep N. Y. App N. Y. Supp negligence obligation offer Ohio St ordinance owner parol evidence payment performance person plans and specifications promise to pay proposal public officers public policy question railroad reasonable recover refuse sealed signed skill statute statute of frauds subscribers sufficient supra surety tion tract tractor ultra vires undertaking valid void W. R. Co written contract

Bibliographic information

Title	The Law of Contracts: A Text-book for Technical Schools of Engineering and Architecture
Author	John Cassan Wait
Publisher	J. Wiley & Sons, 1913
Original from	the University of Michigan
Digitized	26 Jun 2012
Length	331 pages

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