United States v. Mueller

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United States v. Mueller
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Submitted December 22, 1885
Decided January 19, 1885
Full case nameUnited States v. Mueller
Citations113 U.S. 153 ( more )
5 S. Ct. 380; 28 L. Ed. 946
Court membership
Chief Justice
Morrison Waite
Associate Justices
Samuel F. Miller  · Stephen J. Field
Joseph P. Bradley  · John M. Harlan
William B. Woods  · Stanley Matthews
Horace Gray  · Samuel Blatchford
Case opinions
MajorityBlatchford, joined by unanimous

United States v. Mueller, 113 U.S. 153 (1885), was a contracts case before the United States Supreme Court.

Contents

A contractor had been hired to furnish stone to the United States for a building, as well as to saw, cut, and dress it, all as "required". However, delays in the work had been caused by the United States arising from doubts as to the desirability of completing the building with the particular type of stone, as well as to the desirability of the site itself. Suspensions of work involved the examination of the building's foundation and the stone by several commissions.

A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of a building project.

Foundation (engineering) lowest and supporting layer of a structure

In engineering, a foundation is the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads from the structure to the ground. Foundations are generally considered either shallow or deep. Foundation engineering is the application of soil mechanics and rock mechanics in the design of foundation elements of structures.

The Court held that the contractor could recover damages for the enforced suspensions of, and delays in, the work by the United States. [1] As a side item, the Court held a contract to furnish "all of the dimension stone that may be required in the construction" of a building does not include dimension stone used in "the approaches or steps leading up into the building".

Construction Process of the building or assembling of a building or infrastructure

Construction is the process of constructing a building or infrastructure. Construction differs from manufacturing in that manufacturing typically involves mass production of similar items without a designated purchaser, while construction typically takes place on location for a known client. Construction as an industry comprises six to nine percent of the gross domestic product of developed countries. Construction starts with planning, design, and financing; it continues until the project is built and ready for use.

Dimension minimum number of independent coordinates needed to specify any point within a mathematical space

In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it – for example, the point at 5 on a number line. A surface such as a plane or the surface of a cylinder or sphere has a dimension of two because two coordinates are needed to specify a point on it – for example, both a latitude and longitude are required to locate a point on the surface of a sphere. The inside of a cube, a cylinder or a sphere is three-dimensional because three coordinates are needed to locate a point within these spaces.

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References

  1. United States v. Mueller, 113 U.S. 153 (1885).
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