Proffitt & Durnell Plumbing, Inc. v. David H. Baer Co.

In December of 1963 plaintiff, a licensed plumbing contractor, and defendant, a licensed air-conditioning contractor, learned that the City of Santa Monica would receive bids for the construction of a library building and that Parr Contracting Company intended to bid thereon as prime contractor. Parr accepted a so-called combined bid by plaintiff and defendant for the plumbing and air-conditioning work and, using such bid, was subsequently awarded the job. Thereafter plaintiff kept its part of the bargain by doing the plumbing work, but defendant refused to abide by its commitments in the combined bid to Parr; as a result, the latter was forced to pay another air-conditioning contractor $7,480 more than defendant had orally undertaken to do as part of the combined bid. Having elected to hold plaintiff liable thereon, Parr deducted the above $7,480 from the price due plaintiff for the plumbing work. The present suit sought to recover such sum. Defendant’s demurrer to plaintiff’s second amended complaint seeking recovery by way of indemnification of principal by agent (count one), breach of contract (count two) and negligence (count three) having been sustained without leave to…