Stanley Matthews

“ The United States having a right to determine the fact, it would be reasonable, having regard merely to its own interests, to do so before letting the contract. It would be equally reasonable and just to the contractor that the decision should be made at the outset; and as the right to make it belongs to the proprietor, the duty follows to exercise it so that the contractor shall not be misled and injured. ”

“ According to one, it is as if read that 'the foundations and the brick walls now standing,' so far as they 'were uninjured by the fire, will remain;' according to the other, that 'the foundations and brick walls now standing,'being such as 'were uninjured by the fire, will remain.' But, without going into any refinements of merely verbal interpretation, we think the meaning of the parties, explained by the circumstances attending the transaction, is sufficiently plain, and determines satisfactorily their relative rights and obligations. ”

“ We lay no stress, as the court of claims did not, on what was said at the time to that effect by unauthorized subordinates. The foundation and walls themselves, as left standing by authority of the proper officers, constituted under the circumstances a representation on the part of the United States that they had been adjudged to be so far uninjured by fire that they were to remain, upon the faith of which the intending contractor was entitled to rely for the purpose of estimating the probable cost of the work to be done. ”