Meister v. United States

106 F. Supp. 292, 1952 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3988
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedJune 5, 1952
DocketCiv. No. 25192
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 106 F. Supp. 292 (Meister v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meister v. United States, 106 F. Supp. 292, 1952 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3988 (N.D. Ohio 1952).

Opinion

JONES, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs seek to recover $32,000, plus, on a claim filed with the Director of Bureau of Federal Supply, Treasury Department, on February 1, 1947, and by that agency disallowed on July 8, 1947. Their claim is based upon alleged loss on three contracts awarded to them and under which they manufactured and delivered many thousands of skirts for U.N.R.A. in 1944 and 1945.

Recovery is sought under favor of the so-called Lucas Act, Public Law 657, 79th Congress, Act Aug. 7, 1946, 60 Stat. 902, 41 U.S.C.A. § 106 note, and the Executive Order and Regulations thereunder, Oct. 5, 1946, No. 9786, 3 CFR 1946 Supp. p. 165, giving to war contractors an equitable remedy for loss sustained through no fault of their own.

Suit was begun here in September, 1947, after disallowance of the claim by the Treasury agency.

It developed on trial that the proper and, responsible Government agency first learned sometime in February, 1952, of some twenty other contracts awarded and performed by the plaintiffs, but which were not disclosed in their claim filed with the [293]*293Treasury Procurement Division, covering loss on the three contracts, the subject of the present suit.

At the conclusion of plaintiffs’ case the Government moved to dismiss the complaint of the plaintiffs on two or three grounds.

I have read the so-called Lucas Act and the Executive Order and Regulations thereunder.

The following is my reaction to the motion made by the Government at the conclusion of the plaintiffs’ case.

My action is based upon the failure of the plaintiffs to comply with the requirements of the Act and Executive Order. Failure to include in the claim filed by the plaintiffs, the other contracts had b}r them from the Government, it seems to me, is something more serious than the plaintiffs assert. The fact that the plaintiffs may have sustained losses on other contracts not included or disclosed in their claim is not, in my judgment, merely an evidentiary matter, as claimed by the plaintiffs, to be brought forward as justification for their failure to include or disclose the other contracts in their claim as filed.

Unless the requirements of the Act and Executive Order were faithfully complied with, it is quite conceivable that fraud easily could be perpetrated upon the Government. The Government was entitled to all the facts of all contracts, regardless of whether the actual total loss on all contracts would have exceeded the amount claimed.

Since the provisions for recovery of loss under the Act and Executive Order did not constitute a general statutory right, — but was based upon equitable considerations, the obligation of the plaintiffs was to disclose and include in their claim for equitable restitution, all contracts as required, and failure to do so, in my judgment, is fatal to recovery.

It is no answer to say that this court now should overlook such a clear breach of obligation or failure to comply and disclose, by exercising equitable and liberal principles to the advantage of the plaintiffs, whose own neglect produced their predicament,— and is not in accordance with my notion of equitable consideration.

The answer of plaintiffs in the communication of January 31, 1947, responding to the so-called questionnaire, Section 202 (c) and (d) of the Executive Order and Regulations, plus the request to the General Accounting Office and its negative response respecting the existence of other contracts, provided adequate reason for the Treasury Department to file and to pass on the claim,

■ The plaintiffs were required to provide, and the Government was entitled to have, the knowledge of the other, or all, contracts. .In passing on the claim, the Treasury Department had the right to assume, in view of plaintiffs’ response, and that of the General Accounting Office, that all contracts were included in the claim, and it does not seem to be consistent with equitable treatment or liberality of consideration to have produced for the first time such information when a suit brought upon disallowance of the claim is imminent for trial, and after the Government had developed the fact of the existence of other contracts.

The Statute and Executive Order clearly required inclusion of all contracts in the claim filed and therefore it must be concluded upon that premise that a proper and valid claim was not filed within the statutory period.

Viewing this case as an equitable matter, in which the remedy sought must be based upon equitable considerations, the plaintiffs’ failure to comply with the plain provisions of the Statute and Executive Order and Regulations moves the court to deny recovery and sustain the Government’s motion on that basis. No opinion is thought necessary in respect of other parts of the Government’s motion.

Findings of Fact

1. This suit was brought by these plaintiffs, as a partnership, by the filing of a complaint on September 26, 1947, under the War Hardship Claims Act, properly known as -the Lucas Act, Act of August 7, 1946, C. 864, §§ 1 to 6, 60 Stat. 902, as amended June 25, 1948, C. 646, § 37, 62 Stat. 992, 41 U.S. C.A. § 106 note.

2. Plaintiffs sought to recover alleged losses arising from the manufacture of skirts, under three contracts, which were [294]*294executed between the plaintiffs and the Treasury Department of the United States on April 20, 1944, May 10, 1944 and June 29, 1944, respectively.

3. Plaintiffs’ complaint alleged that they had first filed a claim for relief with the Treasury Department on March 21, 1945 which, when disallowed, plaintiffs sought relief under the Lucas Act by filing on February 1, 1947, under the terms of that Act and of Executive Order 9786, a claim for the recovery of the losses sustained by them in the performance of the aforementioned skirt contracts.

4. The amount that plaintiffs sought to recover was $32,090.75, to which plaintiffs claimed they were equitably entitled under the terms of the Act and the Executive Order.

5. In filing their claim on February 1, 1947, plaintiffs purported to comply with the requirements of Section 2 of the Act, and Sections 201 and 202 of Executive Order 9786, by furnishing to the Treasury Department the information required by those sections.

6. Sections 2(a) and 2(b) of the Act, and Section 202(c) of the Executive Order, required plaintiffs to furnish the Treasury Department with a statement of the net losses which they had sustained on all contracts and subcontracts with the war agencies between September 16, 1940 and August 14, 1945.

7. The plaintiffs failed to furnish a statement of their losses on all war contracts to the Treasury Department, but instead limited their claim of February 1, 1947, to losses which they allegedly sustained on the three skirt contracts only.

8. In response to the request for information as to their other contracts and subcontracts, as required by Section 202(c) of the Executive Order, plaintiffs answered “None”, in their statement dated January 31, 1947, and filed February 1, 1947.

9.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Dunning Construction Company
223 F.2d 723 (Tenth Circuit, 1955)
United States v. Chas. M. Dunning Construction Co.
223 F.2d 723 (Tenth Circuit, 1955)
Waxman v. United States
112 F. Supp. 570 (Court of Claims, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
106 F. Supp. 292, 1952 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3988, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meister-v-united-states-ohnd-1952.