77 Minn. 92 | Minn. | 1899
Defendant Carroll entered into a contract with defendant board
The plaintiff paid and satisfied all legal claims for which it was bound on its bond, and then brought this action to recover the amount paid out by defendant board after notice of Carroll’s default, and also to have ascertained the. balance due the latter on his contract, and to recover that sum, also, of the board. When plaintiff rested, the trial court dismissed the action in so far as it was brought to recover the amount paid out on Carroll’s order. It then proceeded to ascertain the sum due to the latter, but these matters subsequent to the dismissal are of no importance here. The appeal is from an order denying plaintiff’s motion for a new trial of all the issues, except as to those matters last mentioned, which' concerned an ascertainment of the sum due Carroll.
It is admitted that under the terms of the bond it was the duty of Carroll to pay all just claims for work and labor performed and
In respect to the party in whose name an action is to be commenced, chapter 351 differs from the charter provision, for in section 1 it is expressly provided that every interested party is to institute the action in his own name. The municipality is not a trustee for the purpose of enforcing a liability accruing to other parties through the delinquency of the contractor, for by express provision this right rests with the injured party. Nor is there any provision in chapter 351 which authorizes the municipality to interfere as between the latter and the contractor. The parties for whose benefit and protection the obligation is entered into are as independent of each other, under this law, as if separate bonds had been required and had been given. The board had agreed with the contractor, and it was its duty, to pay 85 per cent, of the estimates each month; and this agreement the contractor could enforce. In complying with the terms of the written contract, the county was fully protected by the bond, for the laborers and materialmen could obtain
Order affirmed.