Arlington Trust Co. v. United States

139 F. Supp. 556, 134 Ct. Cl. 251, 1956 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 80
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMarch 6, 1956
DocketNo. 49687; No. 49688
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 139 F. Supp. 556 (Arlington Trust Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arlington Trust Co. v. United States, 139 F. Supp. 556, 134 Ct. Cl. 251, 1956 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 80 (cc 1956).

Opinion

Madden, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

These are suits brought pursuant to Section 13 (b) of the Contract Settlement Act of 1944. The plaintiffs seek to recover money to which they claim they were entitled upon the termination, by the Government, of certain contracts which the Government had entered into with the partnership of Leyde & Leyde, and which, while only partially completed, were terminated. In case No. 49688 Glen W. Leyde sues as the surviving partner of the original contracting firm. His suit relates to one contract. In case No. 49687 Arlington Trust Company, hereinafter called Arlington, sues as assignee of Leyde & Leyde of the partnership’s rights under four other contracts. Glen W. Leyde was, during the existence of the partnership, its manager, and, upon the death of the other partner, his wife, in 1948, became the owner of the partnership’s assets. The name Leyde, as used hereinafter, will refer to the partnership, or to Glen W. Leyde, as the context indicates.

The four contracts upon which the Arlington suit is based were made by the United States Maritime Commission with Leyde & Leyde on April 19,1945. They were officially designated as MCc 38104, 38105, 38106 and 38107. These con[254]*254tracts were for the construction of 391 reversible life rafts. The fifth contract, on which Leyde’s suit is based, was also with the Maritime Commission, was dated June 16, 1945, and was for 175 life rafts.

On May 1,1945, Leyde & Leyde assigned to Arlington all of its rights to the money which would become due to it from the Government under the four contracts of April 19, 1945. These assignments were made pursuant to the Assignment of Claims Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 1029, 31 IT. S. C. 203. Arlington gave the necessary notices of these assignments to the Maritime Commission and to the General Accounting Office. Leyde & Leyde did not assign the fifth contract to Arlington.

On April 20, 1945, Leyde subcontracted to Gordon and Company of Manteo, North Carolina, the manufacture of 100 of the life rafts covered by the first two of its contracts, with the privilege of enlarging the subcontract to include all of the 256 rafts covered by the first two contracts. On or about May 2, 1945, Leyde subcontracted to Barry Manufacturing Company of New York City the manufacture of 152 of the rafts covered by Leyde’s contracts with the Maritime Commission.

The Government’s contracts with Leyde reserved to the Government the privilege of termination. The first four contracts were terminated by telegraphic notices on August 20, 21 and 22, 1945. Leyde immediately notified the subcontractors, Gordon and Barry, of the terminations. At the time of termination, Gordon had completed 84 rafts and Barry had completed 40. Leyde’s unassigned contract No. WSA-9909 was terminated by the Government on September 5, 1945.

The Office of Contract Settlement, pursuant to the Contract Settlement Act of 1944, 58 Stat. 649, 66 Stat. 627,41U. S. C. 101, issued Regulation No. 8 as authorized by section 4 (b) of the Act, prescribing forms to be used by contractors in presenting termination claims. The objective of the Contract Settlement Act is, of course, to enable contractors with the Government who have expended money in connection with their contracts, and who have not been permitted to recover that money by completing their contracts and getting [255]*255paid for the completed product, to recover the money spent, together with a reasonable profit. In filing a termination claim, a contractor could ask for an immediate partial payment to be made to him without waiting for a complete audit of his claim.

On October 26,1945, Leyde filed termination claims under the first four contracts totaling $66,862.42, and asking for partial payments amounting to $40,000, and a claim under the fifth contract, No. WSA-9909, asking for $32,906.99, and for a partial payment of $25,000. Leyde included a separate termination claim for Gordon, and in November, a separate claim for Barry. There was also a separate termination claim for an alleged subcontractor called Potomac Enterprises, Inc. Further mention of Potomac will be made hereinafter.

On November 7,1945, the Maritime Commission approved a partial payment to Leyde of $19,000 on the termination claim on the fifth contract, and that payment was made to Leyde in December. In January, 1946, the Commission audited Leyde’s claims and found Leyde’s records to be in poor condition and incomplete. In 1946 Leyde addressed several inquiries to the Commission asking for final settlement of the claims of Leyde and Potomac. On November 29, 1946, the Commission’s Settlement Eeview Board, having been requested to do so by Leyde, made findings on the termination claims under all five contracts, but not on the subcontractors’ claims, which, as to the subcontractors other than Potomac, were being settled by the Commission directly with the subcontractors. The Board’s ultimate finding was that, as a result of the partial payment of $19,000 made to Leyde and referred to above, Leyde was indebted to the Commission in the amount of $8,296.57.

On December 26, 1946, Leyde filed an appeal from the Settlement Eeview Board to the Commission. Extensive hearings were held in February and March 1947 by the Commission’s Findings Appeal Board. On March 31, 1947, before the Appeal Board had made a recommendation, the Commission wrote Leyde’s attorneys that the findings appealed from had been set aside and the Appeal Board would make no recommendation pending a determination by the [256]*256Department of Justice “upon both the criminal and civil fraud phases of the claims of Leyde & Leyde.” The Commission referred to the Regulations which provided for such action.

In July 1947, Glen W. Leyde was indicted for violation of the False Claims Statute, 18 U. S. C. 80, 1940 ed., in the presentation, in October 1945 of the termination claims on all five contracts. After a trial he was acquitted on January 30, 1948. In May 1948, the United States instituted civil forfeiture proceedings under section 19 of the Contract Settlement Act of 1944, supra, against Glen W. Leyde, his wife, and the partnership of Leyde & Leyde, in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. The basis of the suit was the presentation of the termination claims in October 1945. The suit by the Government was for damages and penalties. There was a long trial and the District Court in March 1950 rendered a detailed written decision. United States v. Leyde & Leyde, 89 F. Supp. 256. The court found that items amounting to $15,155.64 in the subcontractor claim of Potomac Enterprises filed by Leyde were fraudulent and judgment was entered for one-fourth of that amount plus $2,000, plus costs, a total of $7,066.61. As to the alleged fraud in the other termination claims, the court held that it had not been proved.

On June 14, 1950, Arlington filed its suit in this court as the assignee of Leyde of the first four contracts, and Leyde filed his suit as the owner of the fifth contract, No. WSA-9909. Arlington sues for $79,073.63 plus interest, and Leyde sues for $18,013.40 plus interest.

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Related

Maryland Casualty Company v. United States
141 F. Supp. 900 (Court of Claims, 1956)

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Bluebook (online)
139 F. Supp. 556, 134 Ct. Cl. 251, 1956 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arlington-trust-co-v-united-states-cc-1956.