Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Volume 20) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852. Excerpt: ... Hennessey t. Farroll & another & Trustees. A contract for building and grading a section of a railroad provided, that for the services performed under the contract, the contractor should be paid monthly, upon a certificate by the engineer of the road of his estimate of the work done, three fourths of the same, one fourth being retained until the work should be completed, and accepted by the engineer; and that in a certain contingency, the employer might determine the contract to be abandoned by the contractor, in which event the contract should be void, and any balance due the contractor should be forfeited to the employer: after the contractor had performed one month's service, and part of a second, and had been paid three fourths of the first, the employer determined that the contract had been abandoned by the contractor. It was held, that nothing was due from the employer to the contractor. In these cases, in which the only question was, whether the supposed trustees, Patrick O'Keefe, John Healey and John T. Cahill, were chargeable as such, it appeared, from their answers, which were stated by one of them for himself and the others, that having entered into a contract to build and grade the South Shore railroad, they let out the building and grading of one section thereof to the defendants, to be done by them in the most substantial and workmanlike manner, and to the satisfaction and acceptance of the engineer of the railroad, and completed on or before the 15th of July, 1848. It was agreed between the parties, that if it should appear to the engineer that the work was not carried on with sufficient rapidity, and was not likely to be completed within the time, the contractors above mentioned, the supposed trustees, might employ other help at the expens...