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Ramstedt v. Brooker

113 A.D. 45 Court Sepond Department, Decision date 1906-05-09 English

Delivered by Gaynor, J.:

Contents

Majority

p. 45
Frank Ramstedt, Appellant, v. Frederick W. Brooker and William E. Brooker, Respondents.
Sepond Department,
May 9; 1906.

Headnote

Contract — when only substantial performance of building contract required — when question for jury.
A contractor suing for the breach of a building contract is pnly required to Show a substantial performance. The omission to complete small details (as a. failure to give three coats of plaster to closets), does not as a matter of law show a failure to .perform.
It is for the jury to say whether there was a substantial performance. Hirschbers, P. J., and Woodward, J., dissented.
Appeal by the plaintiff, Frank Ramstedt, from a judgment of the Municipal Court of the city of New York, borough of The Bronx, in favor of the defendants, rendered on the 16th day of March, 1905.
Willoughby B. Dobbs, for the appellant.
Douglas Mathewson, for the respondents.

The complaint is for the balance due on a building contract Performance is alleged, and that was the issue tried. I do not see how the justice could direct a verdict for the defendants. A careful reading of the evidence shows that at best for the defendants the question whether the plaintiff had performed was one of fact for the jury. The law is that if the contract was substantially performed that was performance. The jury had to be so charged, and it was for them to say whether there had been a substantial performance. The omission of some small things is not enough to defeat a recovery on a complaint for performance. Such omissions in the case of building contracts may well be inadvertent or in good faith. . Hero the justice seems to have directed the verdict because some clothes closets did not have three coats of plaster.. They were not to be classified with' the walls of the house. The omission at

p. 46
all events canñot be said as matter of law to have been, intentional and substantial; that 'was for the jury.

Jenks and Hooker, JJ., concurred ; Hirschberg, P. J., and Woodward, J., dissented.

Judgment of the Municipal "Court reversed and new trial ordered, costs- to abide the event. ' '