Taggart

This is an appeal from an order in'bankruptcy approving a claim of the Merchants’ National Trust & Savings Bank against the bankrupt’s estate for the sum of $4,509. The basis of the claim as stated therein is as follows: Failure of the bankrupt to complete work of - construction in accordance with contract, requiring claimant to employ others to do the work not done by the bankrupt and for which claimant has had to pay the sum of $4,500 more than the price for which the bankrupt agreed to do the same work. The trustee in bankruptcy objected to the allowance of the claim by the referee and later to the confirmation of referee’s report approving the claim by the court, upon the ground that the claim had been released by the creditor for a valuable consideration. The primary question for consideration is the interpretation of release executed by the creditor’s predecessor to the bankrupt.

It appears from the finding of the referee that the bankrupt had entered into a contract with the claimant’s predecessor in which he offered to do certain street work consisting of grading, curbing, sidewalking, oiling, gravelling, and paving of the streets and alleys of a proposed subdivision…