PETER KIEWIT SONS' COMPANY, A CORPORATION, AND GEORGE CONDON AND CHESTER W. CUNNINGHAM, A PARTNERSHIP, TRADING AS CONDON-CUNNINGHAM COMPANY, JOINT ADVENTURERS AND CO-CONTRACTORS, v. THE UNITED STATES, 109 Ct. Cl. 390

Summary

Plaintiff contractors entered a contract with defendant United States to construct a building and furnish labor and materials. Plaintiffs sued defendant, claiming that certain payments for excavation work had been miscalculated. The court entered judgment for plaintiff upon a claim for excavation within the building lines but denied plaintiff's claim for target butt excavation costs. The court concluded that, based upon the contract, certain excavation should have been billed as common excavation, at a higher rate, and it awarded the difference between the two rates. However, regarding the target butt claim, the amount that defendant paid according to the contract, which included all costs within the allotment for construction of the target butt, was held to be sufficient. Plaintiffs' assumption that plaintiffs would be paid according to certain schedules and based upon the exact quantities involved was unreasonable. The contract specifically provided that the cost of labor and ...