Contracture

“ PUTTING ON MORE FORCE. In default of the contractor’s making such additional exertion, and supplying such force, the chief engineer, or president of the company may have such force sent to the work, and the necessary buildings may be erected to receive them at the contractor’s charge and expense, who shall receive the said force in his employ, and work it at whatever price it may have been found necessary to employ it, without diminishing the previous force of the work, and regarding always such extra force as if employed by himself. ”

“ If the plans and specifications for any work which a contractor bids upon are so full, specific, and clear, that he may know exactly what he will be expected to do, and if they do not require him to assume unusual chances and risks, he may intelligently name prices which he believes will compensate him for the service. Having done so, his proposal having been accepted, and a contract entered into accordingly, the engineer and the municipality have a right both in law and equity to demand that he will do exactly and fully what he has contracted to do. ”

“ Eager to win his reward, he opened in business as a contractor. It is said that foresight, level-headedness, and a power to calculate to a mathematical nicety the pros and cons, are indispensable to a contractor. ”

“ If the contractor sees fit to let the work to a subcontractor, who employs labor and buys materials which are used to carry out and fulfil the engagement of the original contract to construct a public building, he is thereby supplied with the materials and lobor for the fulfilment of his engagement as effectually as he would have been had he directly hired the labor or bought the materials. ”

“ The contractor may have profited by the use of the tool, machine, or process, but the work, as completed and enjoyed by the government, is the same as though done by a different and unpatented process, tool, or machine. ”

“ It should be needless to say that the attitude of the engineer toward the contractor should be one of unyielding and uncompromising requirement that the contract and specifications shall be fully and faithfully complied with, but at the same time one of absolute fairness and even helpfulness to the contractor. The ideal relation, which should be more commonly attainable than it appears to be, is that of helpful cooperation to bring about the results the contract and specifications were intended to secure. ”

“ The contractor to provide all stone, materials, tools, implements, horse and cart hire, and pay all railway dues, freightages, etc., and also to provide all labour of every kind for properly completing the work to the full and entire satisfaction of the surveyor. ”

“ If I commission a work from a man, ordering a work specially for my purposes, and I pay for it, what difference does it make whether I put him under an employment contract or establish an independent contractor relationship? ”

“ The practice of inserting, either in the specifications or the contract, a clause making the engineer judge and arbiter in any differences that may arise between the city and the contractor, and providing that his decision in all such cases shall be final, is as unwise as it is often illegal. ”

“ If a contractor be required to turn out a product which shall conform to certain standards, he may properly be given much, if not full latitude, as to how the stipulated results shall be secured, and may be held fully responsible for the outcome ”

“ As a rule, the fewer the men employed by the contractor and the smaller the variety of the work, the greater will be the success under the contract system, the reason for this being that the contractor, under the spur of financial necessity, makes personally so close a study of the quickest time in which the work can be done that soldiering on the part of his men becomes difficult and the best of them teach laborers or lower-priced helpers to do the work formerly done by mechanics. ”

“ This responsible duty, involving, as it should, a perfect familiarity with the terms of the contract and with the character of the work in progress, has been devolved, not by law, but in practice, entirely upon assistants who are not sworn; who, but in few instances, have been found to possess a competent knowledge of engineering; and who, in most cases, appear to owe their positions, and therefore to have been in a greater or less degree dependent upon the political favor and influence of the contracting class. ”

“ After providing that the contractor should furnish certain materials for construction, the contract read:
'The United States of America to furnish at its present location on the reservation at United States nitrate plant No. 2 all other construction materials, the contractor to perform all necessary labor required in transporting such materials to the proper place of for use in construction, the United States of America at all times to furnish the necessary right of way for ingress and egress to the place of present storage of such materials and the place of ultimate use in construction. ”

“ Dear Lady Stratclyffe, the system of our Army Administrations has been, from first to last, a system of Contracts. One must own it has not been a success. Contractors are not, as a rule, trustworthy or conscientious.... ”

“ When, therefore, one exercises an independent employment, selects his own help and has the control of them, and the method of conducting the work, he is an independent contractor. Again, he may change his relation for a time, and become an employee, or he may be a contractor for a part of his service and an employee for a part. Thus, one who was injured while operating a launch to bring supplies to a dredge for his employer was an employee and not an independent contractor, though he was one in conducting the work of dredging. ”

“ Your contracts were explained to you, and their sacredness impressed upon you again and again. You know that when you make a contract you are bound to give all the labor for which your employer agrees to pay. Efforts have been made by my officers to compel you to perform labor according to agreements, that employers might have no excuse for failing to do their part. ”

“ In many instances the contractors let out a portion of the work they have engaged to perform to sub-contractors, who again “set” the earth-work to a body of “navvies,” who again among themselves sub-divide it among the three branches of which their State is composed, namely, “excavators,” “trenchers,” and “runners,” each party of whom appoint their own “ganger.” ”

“ Under the circumstances, therefore, we shall have to require that five thousand be paid down on the signing of the contract, five thousand more two weeks from now, five thousand four weeks from now and the balance on completion of the work. If you were building a house you would have to make some arrangement of the kind. We are asking nothing more of you than we do of others who are doing business with us for the first time. ”

“ Contract System, which provides that city pay a fixed amount annually for service, that certain schedule be paid by householder, or that contractor pay a certain amount to the city for privilege of collecting, and charging the householder for the service. ”

“ If such contractor should by accident be a carpenter, or an owner or vendor of lumber, yet he deals not with the owner in this capacity, but as an undertaker, who has covenanted for his own securities.
The title to this act shows its policy and intention. It is to secure, to 'mechanics and others, payment for labor done and materials found;' and the persons enumerated in the first section are, plainly, those mechanics and tradesmen whose personal labor or property have been incorporated into the building, and not the agents, supervisors, undertakers, or contractors, who employed them. ”

“ The Contractor shall keep himself fully informed of all existing and future national and state laws and local ordinances and regulations in any manner affecting those engaged or employed in the work, or the materials used in the work, or of all such orders and degrees of bodies or tribunals having any jurisdiction or authority over the same, and shall protect and indemnify the party of the first part against any claim or liability arising from or based on the violation of such law, ordinance, regulation, order or decree, whether by himself or his employees. ”

“ The case, I imagine, would be, that some manufacturer or other would be the man I should have for my contractor—a man who, being engaged in some sort of business that was easy to learn, and doing pretty well with as many hands as he was able to get upon the ordinary terms, might hope to do better still with a greater number, whom he could get upon much better terms. ”

“ The contracts are made annually, and the same persons almost always apply for them again year after year. The contractors come principally from the trades that are interrupted by winter, viz.:—Paviors, bricklayers and masons, and gravel quarrymen. For the direction and supervision of the work the whole city is divided into four sections, over each [65] of which is appointed an engineer, with an assistant, who are aided in the general arrangements by the police surveillance. Payment is made only for work effectually done. ”

“ Even if you find one that has money, and means to drill, he’ll maybe know nothin’ about drillin’, and have to hire out the job on contract—and then you’re dependin’ on a contractor that’s tryin’ to rush the job through, so as to get to another contract jist as quick as he can. ”

“ The defective track on the right of way was evident to the contractor when it made the contract, and the reasonable construction of the contract is that the contractor, in order to avail itself of the right of way, with constant ingress and egress, took over the track as it was as part of the equipment for transportation, just as he did the locomotive and cars, and as it found it, with sole responsibility for placing it in working condition and maintaining it for its use. ”

“ You will have genuine proposals from responsible companies, and their bids should be submitted to your engineer. When you have made your choice, let the contract be written by your lawyer, and have the plans and specifications attached. ”

“ In excavation, underpinning, and filling in the contractors have exceeded the limitations prescribed in the contract, and have therefore performed an amount of work for the remuneration of which there is no provision. ”

“ In vain did the largest contractors undertake the job, for it was impossible to contract the aperture, that, instead of being small by degrees and beautifully less, grew every day large by fits and starts, and horribly greater. ”

“ It might be necessary, even, to prepare two sets of specifications for the more important parts of the contract,—one for the bidding, and one for the use of the subcontractors,—although that would be dangerous. ”

“ Constructive delivery consists of notice, tender, readiness, and present ability to deliver according to the contract, all such conditions being reasonable as to time and place, and so constituting duty to receive. ”

“ One may acquire by contract an opportunity for acts and conduct in which parties other than those with whom he contracts are interested, and for negligence in which he is liable in damages to such other parties. A company is chartered to construct and operate a railroad. ”

“ Where the owner of any machinery moved by mechanical power has entered into a contract of hire or lease with a hirer or lessee, the duty imposed under subsection (4) shall apply to the hirer or lessee of the machinery instead of the owner.
(6) Where the owner, hirer or lessee of any machinery moved by mechanical power has entered into a contract with another person to maintain the machinery, the duty under subsection (4) (a) shall apply to that other person instead of the owner, hirer or lessee of the machinery. ”

“ When we talk of Army contractors as among the base but active actualities of war, we commonly mean that while the contractor benefits by the war, the war, on the whole, rather suffers by the contractor. ”

“ On work which is repeated over and over again and the volume of which is sufficient to permit it, the plan of making a contract with a competent workman to do a certain class of work and allowing him to employ his own men subject to strict limitations, is successful. ”

“ So the true mechanic will pride himself upon the thoroughness and solidity of his work, and the high-minded contractor upon the honesty of performance of his contract in every particular. The upright manufacturer will find not only honour and reputation, but substantial success, in the genuineness of the article which he produces, and the merchant in the honesty of what he sells, and that it really is what it seems to be. ”

“ According to English common law, the contract between employer and employed involves on the part of the former the duty of taking reasonable care to provide appliances and to maintain them in a proper condition, and so to carry on his operations as not to subject those employed by him to unnecessary risk. ”

“ The contractor, too, has his share of respon- sibility, if he is to maintain his position at all. There is no reason why, if he undertakes to do business, he should not do it without destroying the health or lives of the workers. ”

“ A dust-contractor, who has been in the business upwards of 20 years, stated that, from his knowledge of the trade, he should suppose that at present there might be about 80 or 90 contractors in the metropolis. ”

“ Special trade contractors are primarily engaged in specialized construction activities, such as plumbing, painting, and electrical work, and work for general contractors under subcontract or directly for property owners. ”

“ I have also the gratification to report that the contract for the wire has been faithfully fulfilled on the part of Aaron Benedict, the contractor; that the first covering with cotton and two varnishings of the whole one hundred and sixty miles is also completed; that experiments made upon forty-three miles have resulted in the most satisfactory manner, and that the whole work is proceeding with every prospect of a successful issue. ”