Nesseth v. Creedon

80 F. Supp. 269
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedSeptember 27, 1948
DocketNo. 2591 Civil
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 80 F. Supp. 269 (Nesseth v. Creedon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nesseth v. Creedon, 80 F. Supp. 269 (mnd 1948).

Opinion

NORDBYE, District Judge.

This cause came before the undersigned, one of the Judges of the above-named Court, on the following motions: (1) Plaintiffs’ motion for a summary judgment in their favor and in favor of the intervener; (2) motion of defendants Creedon and Farley for an order dismissing the amended complaint and the complaint in intervention as to them, or, in the alternative, for an order granting them summary judgment; (3) the oral motion of the Madsen Construction Company for a summary judgment in its favor, said motion being made at the time of the hearing of the foregoing motions.

This proceeding has been before the judges of this Court on various motions, and the oase has now progressed by reason of the affidavits heretofore filed, depositions, stipulations, admissions, etc., so that all parties view the record as one which does not present any genuine issue as to any material fact. For convenience, plaintiffs and the intervener will be referred to as the plaintiffs.

The following factual summation seems necessary to an understanding of the questions presented: In August, 1946, a number of veterans of World War II formed a corporation known as Veterans Blousing Association of Minneapolis. This Association acquired a tract of land, platted it, and made arrangements with the defendant Madsen Construction Company to build the required houses on the land so acquired for the members of the Association. The title to the tract of 'land was registered in the name of the Madsen Construction Company by the Association and an agreement was entered into with the company called “Agreement Re Plan of Operation.” In this agreement, each member of the Association covenanted to contribute some $560, which was to be used to purchase the land in question and the balance remaining to stand as a guaranty fund for the Madsen Company. This company agreed to build the required houses for the members of the Association in accordance with certain approved plans and specifications on the basis of cost plus a fixed fee per house, and to sell them upon completion to the designated members of the Association on that basis. Later, separate instruments designated by the parties as contracts for deed were entered into between the Madsen Company and the members of the Association, including each of the plaintiffs, wherein the particular' house to be constructed for each of the parties was to be sold by the Madsen Company to each of the grantees on the basis of cost plus a fixed fee. These contracts were executed by the parties on or about November 27, 1946.

In October, 1946, pursuant to the Veter-, ans’ Emergency Housing Act of 1946, 60 Stat. 207, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 1821 et seq., and the Housing Expediter’s Priority Regulation No. 5, the Madsen Company made application to the Housing Expediter for authorization to build 61 units on this tract of land and requested a priority allowance for the materials required and also that maximum sales prices be fixed. This application was approved on October [271]*27130, 1946, by defendant Harold Farley, Minnesota State Director of the Federal Housing Administration, to whom had been delegated such authority. The maximum sales prices of the houses in the project were fixed at $7,300 and $9,200, depending upon the type of house to be constructed. These plaintiffs agreed to purchase the type of house for which the maximum sales price was set by the Director at $9,200. It appears that the actual construction of these houses in this project commenced on or about October 10, 1946, and continued through the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947. Then the Madsen Company became faced with increased construction costs because of a rise in the cost of materials, and for this reason it made application to the Housing Administration on June 18, 1947, for a revised ceiling price on all or substantially all of the houses in the project. When this application was made, the Director, as a matter of courtesy to the veterans’ group, afforded the officers of the Veterans Association an opportunity to be heard on the question of the granting of the increase, and after defendant Farley had indicated that he proposed to approve the revised ceiling prices because of the showing made with respect to increased costs, objections of the officers of the Association were forwarded to the Washington office of the Expediter. That office considered the application and the objections thereto, and then approved the contemplated action of the Director of the Housing Administration. It was in July, 1947, that orders were entered by the Housing Administration establishing increases for some of the units, •including those to be built for the plaintiffs. As to the plaintiff Karlins, a final maximum ceiling sales price was set at $11,417.25; as to Nesseth, $11,426; as to Freeman, $11,330, and as to intervener Swartz, $11,266. All of these houses were completed, or about to be completed, at the time the revised maximum ceiling sales prices were fixed.

The 1946 Act, however, was repealed as of June 30, 1947, and although the application for increases was filed by the Mad-sen Company before the Act was repealed, the fina-l orders of the Housing Administration were not entered until July, 1947. And it is by reason of this repeal, as well as for other alleged grounds, that these plaintiffs contend that the Housing Administration acted without authority in assuming to issue revised maximum sales prices. They brought this action seeking •to have the Court declare (1) that the purported orders of defendant Harold Farley and Frank Creedon increasing the maximum sales prices on houses purchased by the plaintiffs were made without warrant of law and that they be set aside as void and illegal; (2) that the Court restrain these defendants from issuing further orders increasing maximum sales . prices on houses purchased by plaintiffs and constructed under the provisions of the Veterans Emergency Housing Program; (3) that the Court declare that any price heretofore exacted by the Madsen Construction Company above said original maximum sales price be refunded to the plaintiffs and that the Court restrain the defendant Madsen Construction Company from collecting a price for these houses above the maximum sales prices set on October 30, 1946; and (4) for such other and further relief as to this Court may seem just and equitable.

In repealing the 1946 Act, Congress provided in Section 1(a) of the 1947 Act, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 1881(a), as follows:

“(a) Sections 1, 2(b) through 9, and sections II and 12, of Public Law 388, Seventy-ninth Congress, are hereby repealed, and any funds made available under said sections of said Act not expended or committed prior to the enactment of this Act are hereby returned to the Treasury: Provided, That any allocations made or committed, or priorities granted for the delivery, of any housing materials or facilities under any regulation or order issued under the authority contained in said Act, and before the date of enactment of this Act, with respect to veterans of World War II, their immediate families, and others, shall remain in full force and effect.”

The effect of the repeal of the 1946 Act on the authority of the Housing Expediter and the Housing Administration to issue revised maximum sales prices on homes constructed under the Veterans’ Emergen[272]*272cy Housing Act of 1946 requires a consideration of some of the provisions of thal Act and the regulations issued thereunder.

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United States v. C. B. S. Const. Co.
93 F. Supp. 664 (S.D. Florida, 1950)
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89 F. Supp. 598 (D. Minnesota, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
80 F. Supp. 269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nesseth-v-creedon-mnd-1948.