240 Pa. 448 | Pa. | 1913
Opinion by
The plaintiff had a contract for the alteration and the erection of an addition to a property belonging to the defendant. Before the job was completed differences arose between the parties and the owner notified the contractor to discontinue his work; the latter did so, and the defendant completed the building. The plaintiff then filed a mechanic’s lien against the property which was proceeded with to judgment in his favor. The owner has appealed.
The first and third assignments complain because the court below refused to give binding instructions or to enter judgment non obstante veredicto in favor of the defendant; and thereunder the appellant contends that
The fourth assignment is in reference to the refusal of the court below to permit evidence of a lien filed by a sub-contractor. There was no error in this ruling: Moore v. Carter, 146 Pa. 492; Huckestein v. Kelly, 152 Pa. 631.
The fifth assignment calls attention to the refusal of evidence offered to show that in consequence of the plaintiff’s delay in the completion of the work the defendant had lost a tenant for the property.. There was no evidence of notice to 'the plaintiff that .the building was to be completed by a specified time for occupation by any particular tenant; and if the defendant was endeavoring to show rental value as a measure of damage, this was not the proper method to pursue in order to prove it. We see no error in the refusal of the offer and the assignment is overruled.
The sixth assignment complains of the refusal of an offer to prove that the plaintiff had unduly delayed the work. In the first place, the defendant himself had given evidence to this effect, and the testimony offered was cumulative; next, since there was no attempt on the part of the owner to insist upon the literal terms of the contract as to a certificate from the architect concerning the cost of completion, and the whole matter of the value of the work to be done after the plaintiff left the job was submitted to the jury, and since the fact that the plaintiff had not finished his work on time was uncontroverted, we do not see that any harm was done by the ruling in question. The real issue was the proper cost of the work that remained to be done in order to complete the contract, and thé jury evidently believed the plaintiff’s proofs on that point and refused to accept those of the defendant. The assignment is overruled.
The seventh assignment contains a lengthy abstract
The judgment is affirmed.