Specifications - Part of Contract

Inspector's Authority Defined.

The follow ing are clauses that are rarely found, but which have much to recommend them. The contractor is always glad to work under such a specifica tion; and it really works to the architect's ad vantage since it puts all question of change of plans and subsequent claims for extra work upon the party who has the matter fully in mind and who is best able to deal with it as it should be dealt with: "It is hereby distinctly understood and mu tually agreed between the parties to this con tract, that the Inspector of the work is not in any sense considered a deputy in charge. His duties are simply to act as a representative to protect the interest of the party (or parties) of the second part; to measure up the work done under the direction and supervision of the en gineer in charge, if so requested; to report to the engineer in charge any deviation he may notice from the specification; and to order work stopped until the engineer can be communicated with, if, in his opinion, such action becomes necessary. All disputes regarding the manner of doing the work and interpretations of the specification and contract shall be referred to the engineer in charge; and no change or devia tions or allowances of any kind ordered by the inspector without written instructions to that effect from the engineer in charge will be recog nized by the party (or parties) of the second part.

"It is furthermore agreed and expressly un derstood by both parties to this contract, that if the engineer in charge shall at any time be com pelled to be absent, and cannot be communicated with in a reasonable time, he shall appoint in writing a deputy who shall perform his duties until he is again in touch with the work; and at that time the authority of the deputy shall cease without notice until further appointment is made." Layout of the Work. It is manifestly unfair to make the contractor responsible for the proper layout of the work by the architect. The careful contractor will check over the layout before he begins his work; but there are certain phases of this work for which he ought to be able to depend upon those who furnish the specifica tions.

The Architect's Errors.

The following is a specification which often puts the contractor in a rather unfair position: "The Contractor must satisfy himself, before commencing work, as to the meaning and cor rectness of all stakes and marks; and no claims will be entertained by the Owner for or on ac count of any alleged inaccuracies, or for altera tions subsequently rendered necessary on ac count of such inaccuracies, unless the Contractor notifies the Architect thereof in writing before commencing the work thereon." Here we have the statement that a contrac tor not only must be responsible for the proper management of the work and of the men, but also must attend to the checking of the architect and be held to account not only for his own care lessness and mistakes but for those of the archi tect as well. This is to a certain extent a good

thing, but it is hard to say to just what extent it is good. If errors are due to the carelessness of the contractor, and are not discovered in time, all marks may have been removed which would lead to the placing of the responsibility for the error; and the contractor will blame them on the architect, and the architect will blame them on the contractor. Without such a clause, the con tractor may say that he did the work as shown by the architect, whether he did or not, and thus shift upon the architect's shoulders all blame. The architect or his representative is on the work especially to prevent mistakes, and can have nothing to fall back on except such a speci fication. It would seem, then, that it is perhaps necessary for his protection, although it may work a hardship on the contractor.

In keeping with the tendency to make the contractor responsible for the errors of the archi tect, the following clause is often found: "Correction of errors or omissions in draw ings or specifications may be made by the Archi tect when such correction is necessary for the proper fulfilment of the intentions of such draw ings or specifications, the effect of such correc tion to date from the time that the Architect gave notice thereof to said Contractor." In making corrections and supplying omis sions, the architect might do almost anything he wished, and say that it was only "in fulfilment of the intentions." Perhaps a contractor did not realize these intentions when he made his bid, and, in consequence, will have to do work that he has made no provision for in his estimate.

The plans and specifications are supposed to work in harmony with one another, and it is gen erally so stated as follows: "The drawings and specifications are in tended to co-operate; and work shown on the drawings and not particularly described in the specifications, or any work evidently necessary to the complete finish of the work included in this specification, as specified or shown, is to be done by the Contractor without extra charge, the same as if it were both shown and specified." This is a fair specification, for it simply says that anything omitted in this specification that shows in the drawings, or any essential that is omitted from the drawings and is covered by the specification, shall be executed as if it were shown in both; and since the contractor has both the drawings and specifications, he has had due notice of the requirements, and can act accord ingly in making up his bid. But where the omis sion occurs in both drawings and specifications, it is unfair to hold him as if he were expected to know what the architect intended and wanted. He should have an allowance for extra work in case of additions to both specifications and draw ings required by the architect's carelessness and omissions.