Purcell

The defendant, the City of San Gabriel, was contemplating the installation of a municipal water system and entered into the following contract with plaintiff, a civil engineer:

After the execution of the contract the plaintiff made certain investigations as to the most feasible means in his judgment of obtaining a water supply for said City; obtained for said City certain options on water-bearing lands, situated in or near said City,' on which there was situated a well producing a supply of water; made an examination of the two private water systems that were then furnishing water to the inhabitants of said city, and made a physical valuation of their property; designed a circulating distributing system for conducting water to various sections of said City with a list of the streets of said City, and the class and length of pipe for each street; and made an estimate of the cost of the proposed system. These facts, with the exception of the valuation placed upon the two private systems already referred to, • he embodied in a written report which he submitted to the board of trustees of the defendant within a reasonable time after his employment. He did) not, however, at that time,…