Marine Midland Bank v. United States

687 F.2d 395, 30 Cont. Cas. Fed. 70,265, 231 Ct. Cl. 496, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 968, 1982 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 447
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedAugust 25, 1982
DocketNo. 308-81C
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 687 F.2d 395 (Marine Midland Bank 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
Marine Midland Bank v. United States, 687 F.2d 395, 30 Cont. Cas. Fed. 70,265, 231 Ct. Cl. 496, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 968, 1982 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 447 (cc 1982).

Opinions

BENNETT, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This case presents several difficult and interesting questions of first impression: (1) under the standard "title vesting” clause for federal procurement contracts, what is the nature of the interest taken by the government to secure its progress payments to a contractor, and (2) upon the insolvency of a contractor to which such payments have been made, what is the resolution of the conflict between that interest and a floating lien security interest of a general creditor of the contractor? The case is now before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment, and there has been briefing and oral argument. We conclude: (1) that the government takes an interest in the nature of a lien, and (2) that such lien is paramount to private floating liens. As will be explained fully below, since the collateral in this case did not have value in excess of the government’s lien interest, this results in a holding for defendant.

On December 20, 1977, Bond Trailer Division, Inc., a Virginia company, executed a written guarantee to plaintiff Marine Midland Bank to pay certain indebtedness to plaintiff of a third party. Bond secured this guarantee by executing a floating lien security interest1 in favor of plaintiff, allegedly perfected by plaintiff under applicable state law by January 9,1978.

Bond was exclusively a government contractor, engaged in the production of munition trailers for the Air Force and the Navy. Bond’s two contracts with the Air Force were dated June 30, 1976, and March 3, 1978, and its contract with the Navy was dated May 9, 1978. All three of these contracts, whether by their original terms or by amendment, included a clause which provides that upon the government’s making of progress payments title shall "forthwith vest” in the government:

to all parts; materials; inventories; work in progress * * * theretofore acquired or produced by the Contractor and allocated or properly chargeable to this contract [498]*498under sound and generally accepted accounting principles and practices * * * [and] to all like property thereafter acquired or produced by the Contractor as aforesaid * * * upon said acquisition, production or allocation.

This clause is from federal procurement regulations, 32 C.F.R. §163.79-2 (1981), and pertinent parts thereof are included as an appendix to this opinion.

The dispute in this case arose when the party for which Bond was acting as guarantor defaulted under its obligations to plaintiff. Upon plaintiffs subsequent demand upon Bond, and Bond’s refusal to pay, plaintiff instituted proceedings in May 1979, in state court in Virginia, to obtain physical possession of Bond’s collateral. This basically was its plant and all of its inventory, as covered by the floating lien. In June 1979, however, the United States intervened in the state proceedings, claiming that plaintiff could not take possession of the inventory because it belonged to the government pursuant to the title vesting clauses in its contracts. The case was then removed to the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. Those proceedings were stayed in their turn when Bond initiated bankruptcy proceedings in the bankruptcy court in that district, and the result of that action, as pertinent to the case as it now stands before this court, was that the property claimed both by plaintiff and the government was abandoned by the bankruptcy court under an agreement between plaintiff and defendant that defendant would take possession of the inventory subject to defendant’s payment of $250,000 should it be judicially determined that plaintiffs security interest was paramount to the interest asserted by the government. The district court then transferred the case here for that determination.

As a preliminary matter, we note that it is indisputable that physical possession of Bond’s inventory is properly with the government. United States v. Ansonia Brass & Copper Co., 218 U.S. 452 (1910). Especially when defense procurement is involved, the government’s title vesting provisions certainly operate to prevent the actual possession of goods contracted for by the government from passing to anyone else. United States v. Digital Prod. Corp., 624 [499]*499F.2d 690 (5th Cir. 1980); In re American Boiler Works, Inc., 220 F.2d 319 (3d Cir. 1955). It is also indisputable that the government’s taking of possession put the collateral beyond the reach of any interest that plaintiff may have had. "[Government] property, for the most obvious reasons of public policy, cannot be seized by authority of another sovereignty against the consent of the Government.” Ansonia Brass & Copper Co., 218 U.S. at 471. Plaintiff claims, however, that the extinction of its interest in the collateral is compensable as a fifth amendment taking, under the rule of Armstrong v. United States, 364 U.S. 40 (1960) (where the government takes title to property, to which a valid lien had attached, the lien is extinguished and its value is recoverable in an action for taking).

I

Of initial, and critical, importance in this case is the nature of the interest taken by the government for its payment of progress payments. If the government took title to Bond’s inventory, in the traditional sense, then it becomes important whether plaintiffs lien attached before title vested. If so, then plaintiffs interest was compensably taken, under Armstrong. If not, then plaintiffs lien never actually had anything to attach to because the property belonged to the government. Plaintiff would have no recovery in that situation. If, however, the government took a lien interest, instead of traditional title, then the next question becomes one of priorities, whether it is the government’s lien or plaintiffs that is paramount. These are widely divergent lines of inquiry.

Defendant argues that the plain meaning of its title vesting clause is that the government takes title in the traditional sense, that the government simply owns inventory subject to the operation of the clause. Plaintiff, on the other hand, argues that a full reading of the clause, and of the regulations that govern its use, shows that the government means only to take a security interest to secure its progress payments, and that title in the traditional sense is not contemplated at all.

[500]*500Plaintiffs assertion is the correct one. As will be made clear, the progress payments in this case were loans from the government to Bond, to be repaid by withholding an appropriate amount of the contract price ultimately owing on full performance. In the interim, the government took an interest in Bond’s inventory as security, as defined by the title vesting clause. This interest was far less than full ownership.

The title vesting clause comes from 32 C.F.R. Part 163, entitled "Defense Contract Financing Regulations,” which implements the authorization under 10 U.S.C.

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687 F.2d 395, 30 Cont. Cas. Fed. 70,265, 231 Ct. Cl. 496, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 968, 1982 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marine-midland-bank-v-united-states-cc-1982.