- turnkey
- A person, under the superintendence of a jailer, who has the charge of the keys of the prison, for the purpose" of opening and fastening the doors@ turn-key contract@ turnkey contractProject in which all owner need do is "turn the key" in the lock to open the building with nothing remaining to be done and all risks to be assumed by contractor. Glassman Const. Co., Inc. v. Maryland City Plaza, Inc., D.C.Md., 371 F.Supp. 1154,1159.Term used in building trade to designate those contracts in which builder agrees to complete work of building and installation to point of readiness for occupancy. It ordinarily means that builder will complete work to certain specified point, such as building a complete house ready for occupancy as a dwelling, and that builder agrees to assume all risk. Gantt v. Van der Hoek, 251 S.C. 307, 162 S.E.2d 267, 270.In oil drilling industry a job wherein driller of oil well undertakes to furnish everything and does all work required to complete well, place it on production, and turn it over ready to turn the key and start oil running into tanks. Retsal Drilling Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, C.C.A.Tex., 127 F.2d 355, 357.A turn-key contract to drill a well involves the testing of the formation contemplated by the parties and completion of a producing well or its abandonment as a dry hole, all done for an agreed-upon total consideration, putting the risk of rising costs, well trouble, weather, and the like upon the driller, but it does not, in the absence of a clear expression, require the driller to guarantee a producing well. Totah Drilling Co. v. Abraham, 64 N.M. 380, 328 P.2d 1083, 1091@
Black's law dictionary. HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK, M. A.. 1990.