76 Md. 354 | Md. | 1892
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Columbian Iron Works Company sued Nelson Morris & Co. for a balance alleged to be due for work and materials. Evidence was offered tending to prove that the work was done and the materials were furnished by the plaintiff at the request of the defendants, and that the prices charged were reasonable and proper." The defendants offered to prove by a competent witness that they had shown the said work and materials to two persons of knowledge and experience, and asked them what their price would he for similar work and materials, and that they made estimates in writing, and that such estimates were much less than the prices charged by the plaintiff; upon objection by the plaintiff, the Court refused to admit the estimates in evidence, and the defendants excepted. If the witnesses who made these estimates had been produced and sworn, it would have been competent for them to testify to the value of the work and materials; hut the inquiry in the case was not what the witnesses would have charged for them, and it would not have been admissible to prove this even by the witnesses themselves on the stand. The defendants were responsible for what the work was fairly worth; and the usual price paid at the' time and place would he evidence of this value, hut not what two or more persons would charge for doing it. A question analogous to this was decided in Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company vs. Mackenzie, 74 Md., 50, where damages were claimed for the erection of a telegraph pole in the footway in front of the plaintiff’s premises. It was held that it was not competent to prove by witnesses the amount which, if they owned the property, they would give not to have the pole placed where it was, or the
The work was done on the steamship Rossmore, which belonged to the defendants, and the materials were used in the prosecution of the work. The plaintiff followed the business of building and repairing ships, and it was suggested in argument as a reason why this evidence should not be admitted, that it was not competent to prove that the prices charged for hardware were excessive, except by persons in the same line of business as the plaintiff; that his right to recover could not be defeated, if his prices were about the same as those charged by others in his line of business. The question was whether the materials were charged at prices exceeding their value, and any evidence was competent which tended to prove their value. If there were any facts which would show that these materials were of greater value when furnished by the plaintiff under the circumstances of this case, than they would have been if purchased from hardware dealers, the plaintiff had the right to prove these facts in evidence.
For error in the second exception, the judgment must' he reversed.
Reversed, and new trial.