Fletcher v. Maupin

129 F.2d 46, 76 U.S. App. D.C. 63, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3284
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedJune 15, 1942
DocketNo. 7900
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 129 F.2d 46 (Fletcher v. Maupin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fletcher v. Maupin, 129 F.2d 46, 76 U.S. App. D.C. 63, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3284 (D.C. Cir. 1942).

Opinion

EICHER, Chief Justice.

This is an action to establish an equitable lien on a fund in the Treasury of the United States. Appellee Maupin was part owner of a farm near the City of Portsmouth in Norfolk County, Virginia, known as the “Afton Farm” when on September 20, 1918, the property was taken for public use by the Secretary of Labor of the United States to provide housing accommodations for workers in the Portsmouth (Va.) Navy Yard. At the time of the taking the sum of $45,047.59 was paid to the owners. Later, the Court of Claims, in a just compensation proceeding, found the value of the property, as of the date of the taking, to be $97,325.02. The unpaid balance of $52,277.43 was received by the owners on June 18, 1922. The Supreme Court of the United States in Seaboard Airline R. Co. v. United States, 1923, 261 U.S. 299, 43 S.Ct. 354, 67 L.Ed. 664, held that the amount of just compensation for private property taken for public use should include interest from the date of the taking to the time of payment. Influenced, no doubt, by said decision, Congress, by a special Act approved June 30, 1938, directed the Court of Claims to reopen the “Afton Farm” case (and others), with the result that the Court of Claims found the interest on $52,277.43 from September 20, 1918 to June 18, 1922, to be $19,828.71 and that the share of appellee Maupin therein was $11,330.68. By Act of Congress, approved August 9, 1939, appropriation was made for the payment thereof. The appellant brought the suit out of which this appeal arises, on August 29, 1939, and Maupin’s said share is now in the custody and control of defendants Morgenthau and Julian, in the District of Columbia, awaiting termination of this litigation.

The appellant’s claim that he holds an equitable lien on said fund is bottomed upon a quitclaim deed to the “Afton Farm” from appellee Maupin and his wife executed and delivered to the appellant on October 9, 1930, conveying such interest as grantor “may now have”, and containing the proviso that “no warranty of title is given”. The consideration for the quitclaim deed was Ten Dollars and a promissory note of same -date signed by the appellant promising to pay appellee Maupin, or order, on or before March 1, 1935, the principal sum of Nine Thousand Dollars, without interest, out of the rents and profits derived from the “Afton Farm”. A Deed of Trust was executed on the same date by the appellant (a single man) to secure the payment of his note to appellee Maupin, which Deed of Trust conveyed all the right, title and interest in the “Afton Farm” [48]*48that, was conveyed by the quitclaim deed from appellee Maupin to the appellant, and nothing more.

In the taking of the “Afton Farm” the Secretary of Labor acted pursuant to an Executive Order of the President of the United States of date June 18, 1918, which directed the Secretary of Labor to exercise all the powers vested in the President by two Acts of Congress, (1) an Act approved May 16, 1918, Ch. 74, 40 Stat. 550, authorizing the President, inter alia, to requisition lands to provide housing for war needs and to make just compensation therefor with right in property owners to have the compensation reviewed by the Court of Claims, (the powers to terminate at the close of the War, except’ the power to “care for, sell, or rent property undisposed of, and to conclude and execute contracts for the sale of property made during the War” and (2) an Act approved June 4, 1918, C. 92, 40 Stat. 595, 40 U.S.C.A. § 11, conferring upon the President the discretion to create a corporation for the purpose of effectuating his authority to provide housing.

On September 6th, 1918, the Acting Secretary of Labor executed an instrument requisitioning the “Afton Farm”, giving notice to all interested parties, and appointing a requisition officer “to enter upon and take actual possession” of the land, and the instrument was duly recorded on September 24, 1918, in Norfolk County, Virginia.

By Executive Order of date October 29, 1918, the President approved the Act of ■the Secretary of Labor in causing the creation of a corporation under the laws of the State of New York, known as the United States Housing Corporation, for the purpose of carrying out the Housing Act.

On July 23, 1919, the Secretary of Labor in the name of the United States, executed and delivered a deed conveying the “Afton Farm” to the United States Housing Corporation, which deed was duly recorded in Norfolk County, Virginia, on January 30, 1923.

Appellee Maupin and his wife executed, under date of April 1, 1924,. a quitclaim deed conveying the “Afton Farm” to the United States Housing Corporation, which deed was acknowledged on April 21, 1925 and on April 22, 1925 was duly recorded in Norfolk County, Virginia.

It will thus be seen that prior to execution by him of quitclaim deed to appellant in 1930, the appellee Maupin had surrendered possession of the land, had accepted his aliquot part of the amount determined by the Court of Claims to be full, just compensation, and had quitclaimed whatever interest he might have in the land to the United States Housing Corporation.

No payment having been made by appellant on the obligation to appellee Maupin secured by his Deed of Trust covering said “Afton Farm”, appellee Maupin, on or about September 5, 1939, gave notice of such default to the Trustee thereunder, and on September 12, 1939, the Trustee foreclosed the same in accordance with the controlling Virginia law. The rights and interests conveyed in said Deed of Trust by appellant to the Trustee were purchased at said foreclosure sale by appellee Maupin and were conveyed to him by the Trustee.

Appellant in his complaint prayed that the Secretary of the Treasury and the ^Treasurer of the United States be restrained from paying the fund to appellee Maupin, that a receiver be appointed to receive the fund and receipt for same, and that appellant be decreed to have an equitable lien thereon. Appellee Maupin in his answer pleaded the taking, alleged his quitclaim deed to the United States Housing Corporation, denied any indebtedness to the appellant, and counterclaimed for the unpaid $9,000.00 with interest from March 1, 1935, represented by the note which was secured by the foreclosed mortgage given by appellant to appellee Maupin. Appellant in his reply raised no issue as to appellee Maupin’s quitclaim deed to the United States Housing Corporation, (although when same was offered in evidence he objected on ground that the United States had no authority to accept such deed in 1924), denied that his note to appellee Maupin’s trustee evidenced a debt or ever became an effective contract between the parties, and counterclaimed for $50,000.00 for alleged fraudulent foreclosure by appellee Maupin of the mortgage that appellant had given back on said land.

The appellant contends in argument that the United States has no right to requisition property, that there is no such thing as requisition of property, that in any event the- requisite, steps were not taken, and that therefore the United States did [49]

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Bluebook (online)
129 F.2d 46, 76 U.S. App. D.C. 63, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fletcher-v-maupin-cadc-1942.