Empire Steel Buildings Co. v. Harvey MacHine Co.

DORAN, J.

The defendant herein is appealing from a judgment in favor of plaintiff in the amount of $30,000, of which $29,400 is for loss of profits, and $600 for expenses incurred by plaintiff. In the spring of 1951, the Harvey Machine Company, appellant, entered into negotiations with officials of the Empire Steel Buildings Company, respondent, in reference to construction of a foundry building on appellant’s property. At that time Empire was engaged in constructing a “pot-room” building for Harvey; the latter was in a hurry for the foundry to be constructed, and desired work to be started immediately.

Construction of the foundry involved two parts, cement work for foundations and floor, and steel work which formed the building proper. At Harvey’s request, Empire submitted a price of $148,750 for the cement work, and $139,761 for the steel work, upon the condition that Empire be given both units of the work. If the steel work only was to be done, then the price was to be $150,000. The Harvey officials suggested that Empire reduce the total price to $275,000 for the whole job. Empire was then given the steel contract at $150,000, and agreed to consider the $275,000 price for the entire job. This was on June 1, 1951, a Friday, and at Harvey’s insistence, engineering work on the steel project commenced on the following Monday.

On Tuesday, June 5th, according to testimony by Gordon Anderson, Empire’s secretary and treasurer, “I told Mr. Leo

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Harvey that we had given it considerable thought and the best that we could do the entire job for would be $280,000 and he said, ‘$280,000, okay.' He says, ‘$5000 one way or the other doesn’t make any difference to me as long as I get the building on time.’ I said, ‘Well, we have always made our previous deliveries and commitments on time, right?’ And he said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘Well, we will schedule—we are going full blast on the steel work now, and we will schedule the concrete work right along with it. ’ He said, ‘ Okay, I am glad to see you boys get the deal, ’ and he shook my hand, and I thanked him and that was about it; that was the end of the conversation.” There was similar, corroborative testimony given by Arthur M. Anderson, president of Empire Steel Building Company.

Between the 5th and 15th of June there were various telephone conversations between appellant’s president, Homer Harvey, and Empire’s president in respect to rushing the job through, in which Empire assured Harvey that the engineering work was progressing, and that “We will finish the job as scheduled.” (September 15, 1951.) No written contract was executed.