The following is from Seglin?EUR??,,????'???s column.

Leon Gray of Fullerton, Calif., e-mailed me to ask about how far he needed to go to locate a contractor to whom he might owe some money.

“I was contacted by another firm to bid on a small waterfall feature at a private residence,” Gray writes.

He and the other contractor scheduled a meeting at the residence, which Gray missed because poor cell-telephone reception had caused him to think that the meeting was in the evening rather than in the morning.

While at the residence, 12 hours after the nonmeeting, Gray met briefly with the homeowner and found out exactly what was needed. He prepared a bid to give to the contractor, but found it impossible to get in touch with him.

“I called a number of times and left voicemails,” he writes. “I even called his assistant and had her leave a note for him to call.”

Gray wants to know if he is still obligated to continue trying to contact the contractor.

I believe that he is.

While the contractor may be shirking his responsibility by being so difficult to contact, and apparently is annoying his client, it doesn’t remove Gray’s obligation. Without the initial contact from the contractor, he never would have found the job in the first place. Their initial conversation defined the obligations of the relationship, and nothing that has happened since has altered those obligations.