Koehring Co. v. Hyde Construction Co.

178 So. 2d 838, 254 Miss. 214, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 944
Mississippi Supreme Court·Decided October 4, 1965·No. 43572·Published·Cited by 32 cases

Opinion

*223 Rodgers, J.

This case grew out of the following facts and circumstances : On November 18, 1959, a contract was awarded to Hyde Construction Company, Inc. in the amount of $16,173,876.86 for the construction of a large concrete spillway, Keystone Dam, Arkansas River, in the State of Oklahoma. The specification of the United States Corps of Engineers, as incorporated in the contract, required that the contractor erect a suitable concrete plant of sufficient capacity to satisfactorily batch, mix and discharge two hundred cubic yards of concrete per hour, and sixteen hundred cubic yards of concrete in any eight-hour shift. The specifications also required that the concrete be placed in the facility at a certain temperature. The Hyde Construction Co., Inc. (hereinafter called Hyde) went about securing a plant and equipment that would produce a concrete mix required by the contract, and entered into negotiations with the Koehring Company (C. S. Johnson Company, Division, hereinafter called Koehring) for the purchase of a plant to manufacture the required mix.

Koehring proposed the installation of a cooling and heating facility, which was to operate on a vacuum principle. Hyde was experienced in the operation of a concrete mixing plant of similar make and design which had been previously sold and offered by Koehring, but *224 had had no experience with the proposed vacuum cooling’ system or equipment necessary to control the temperature of the mix proposed to be manufactured by Koehring. A contract was negotiated between the appellant and appellee on February 5, 1960, in which Koehring guaranteed that its cooling plant would operate to the satisfaction of Hyde, but it is charged that the plant failed to operate as guaranteed and as a result of the failure of the plant and system to operate and produce the required cement mix from the date of installation, the progress of the work on the Keystone Dam Project was thereby greatly delayed, resulting in many “shutdowns” and periods of loss of time and labor efficiency, resulting in great damage to Hyde in the sum of $500,000.

On August 30, 1961, in Civil Action No. 3175, Hyde exhibited its complaint in the Federal Court at Jackson, Mississippi, wherein it sought a money judgment against Koehring for the breach of the contract and warranty set out in the sale contract for the concrete mixing and cooling plant. This bill of complaint also made two companies defendants by way of attachment. Dalrymple Equipment Company was named attachment defendant in the State and Federal Courts. It was alleged that each of the attached defendants knew of other residents having effects of the non-resident defendant Koehring and others who were indebted to it. Attachment was requested under the method set out in Mississippi Code Annotated sections 2729 through 2734, inclusive (1956). The complaint also charged that there was diversity of citizenship existing between the complainant on the one hand and Koehring (C. S. Johnson Division) on the other. The complaint asks that the court enter a decree in favor of the complainant, jointly and severally, against the non-resident defendant in the full sum of $500,000, with legal interest and the cost of court, and that the funds and effects in the hands of the attached defendants *225 be condemned for the satisfaction in whole or in part of a money decree. It requests that judgment be entered as provided by law in such cases against the attached defendants upon a recovery of judgment. The bill of complaint alleged that Koehring was a foreign corporation, doing business in Mississippi, without having qualified and appointed an agent for process, thereby calling into play the statute which designated the Secretary of State as agent for process. Koehring filed no answer in the Federal action, but instead filed a special appearance in the form of a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction.

Koehring’s motion to dismiss the Federal action for lack of jurisdiction also included a request in the alternative, that the court transfer the case to the Federal District Court of Oklahoma under section 1404 (a), Title 28, IT. S. C. A. This motion was overruled; whereupon, Koehring appealed to the Court of Appeals of the Fifth Circuit. Thereafter, on September 27, 1961, while the above-mentioned suit was pending in the Federal District Court at Jackson, Hyde filed a suit in the State Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, setting out an identical cause of action theretofore filed by Hyde in the Federal Court.

In the State Chancery Court suit, Hyde also invoked a non-resident or attachment statute of Mississippi and Dalrymple Equipment Company again was made a resident attachment-defendant. The State Chancery Court action remained relatively dormant while proceedings were had on Koehring’s appeal from the decision of the Federal Court in Mississippi.

While the appeal in the Fifth Circuit was pending in the Federal Court suit, Koehring filed its answer in the State court on January 30, 1963, thereby entering its appearance in the Chancery Court proceedings. In this answer, Koehring pleaded the pendency of the prior Federal court action, and alleged that the issue in the *226 former Federal Court suit and the issue set out in the State Chancery Court suit was the same, and that the prior Federal Court suit was brought as a quasi in rem proceeding. Koehring requested in its answer that the Chancery Court suit should be dismissed or stayed, pending the disposition of the earlier filed Federal Court action. However, no plea in abatement was filed and no proof of a restraining order was made prior to the entry of the final decree in the State Chancery Court. On September 19, 1963, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rendered an opinion in the Federal Court proceeding which pretermitted the jurisdictional question, but reversed the lower U. S. Court directing that the Federal Court suit be transferred to the First District for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

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Koehring Co. v. Hyde Construction Co., 178 So. 2d 838, 254 Miss. 214, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 944 (Mich. 1965).

178 So. 2d 838 (Koehring Co. v. Hyde Construction Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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