Reconstruction Finance Corp. v. Duke

14 F.R.D. 265, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3841
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedMarch 31, 1953
DocketCiv. No. 5306
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 14 F.R.D. 265 (Reconstruction Finance Corp. v. Duke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reconstruction Finance Corp. v. Duke, 14 F.R.D. 265, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3841 (D. Md. 1953).

Opinion

WILLIAM C. COLEMAN, Chief Judge.

The question presented is whether this Court should vacate its order permitting the impleading of third-party defendants pursuant to Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. This Rule, which governs third-party practice, makes no reference to such action by the Court, but the authority given to the Court by the Rule with respect to third-party practice is permissive and discretionary, not mandatory.

This suit was instituted March 13, 1951, by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation against the defendants, Milton Duke [267]*267and Morton L. Kemper, officers of the Bond Construction Corporation, to recover on a contract of guaranty dated March 6, 1944, which they executed in order to secure a loan in the amount of $71,500, which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation agreed to make to the Bond Corporation in furtherance of that corporation’s completion of a subcontract which it had entered into on January 6, 1944, with the main contractor, Victor Frenkil, trading as Baltimore Contractors, Inc., for the construction of a reservoir for the District of Columbia at Fort Stanton, Virginia. In accordance with its loan agreement, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation made various disbursements to Bond Construction Corporation aggregating $54,450, and was repaid $27,889.82. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation also realized on collateral, so that the net balance due on the loan was $25,840.32. On October 10, 1945, the original defendants voluntarily defaulted on their subcontract, as a result of which Frenkil proceeded with the contract. It is the last named amount, plus interest, which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation seeks to recover in the present suit.

On June 22, 19'51, the defendants, Duke and Kemper, moved to join the main contractor, Frenkil, and his company, as third party defendants in the present suit, alleging fraudulent breach of their subcontract with the defendants. On July 10, 1951, Frenkil and his company moved to dismiss this third party complaint. After due hearing, this Court denied this latter motion and signed an order to that effect on October 15, 1951. On October 31, 1951, the third party defendants moved to bring into the case as fourth party defendants, John S. Mahle, receiver of the defendants’ company, the Bond Construction Corporation, and also the United States Casualty Company, which issued performance and payment bonds for the defendants. This motion was granted; answers by these other parties were filed and the receiver of the Bond Company asserted a counterclaim against Frenkil and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation on account of Frenkil’s alleged fraudulent failure to pay the sums to which he, the receiver of the Bond Company, was entitled. The receiver also sought a determination of his rights against Frenkil and an adjudication of the legal status of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Bond Company by reason of the latter’s assignment, executed at the same time as the contract of guaranty to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation as security for the latter’s loan to the Bond Company, of all payments due or to become due from the main contractor, Frenkil, under the Bond Company’s subcontract.

This Court has considered separately the extent of the liability of the original defendants to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation under their guaranty for repayment of the latter’s loan to them, and in an earlier opinion held them liable to the full extent of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation’s claim. At that time Victor Frenkil moved to vacate the Court’s order of October 15, 1951 whereby Frenkil had been impleaded, asserting as ground for this motion that Federal jurisdiction no longer existed and that the remaining controversy would involve trial of a different issue from that presented by the original suit.

With respect to dismissing the third party complaint, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has adopted a neutral position. But Duke and Kemper, and also the receiver oppose this motion on numerous grounds, which may be summarized as follows: (1) that since all parties to this complicated litigation are in Court, it will be more economical and expeditious to adjudicate here, in a single suit, the rights and liabilities of all of them; (2) that the entire controversy has a comon source, i. e., the construction contract with the District of Columbia; (3) that Frenkil, the third party defendant, has himself invoked the jurisdiction of this Court by impleading other parties, and is now estopped from seeking to be freed from this litigation; (4) that if [268]*268the Court should dismiss Frenkil without prejudice, and thereupon the original defendants should file suit against him in a State court, joining the Reconstruction Finance Corporation as a party defendant, the latter would forthwith remove the case back to this Court; and (5) that the original defendants and their receiver might be seriously damaged by refusal of this Court to proceed, because of the assignment which the original defendants made to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of all payments due them from Frenkil.

Taking up these contentions in the order in which they have just been stated, with respect to the first contention, it is .sufficient to say that even assuming but without deciding because impossible to do more than speculate, that it would be more economical and expeditious to adjudicate here, in a single suit, the rights and liabilities of all the parties, the question involved is not merely one of economy in •terms of time and cost, but also of the proper exercise of discretion vested in this Court by Rule 14, taking all the facts and circumstances involved into account.

As to the second contention, while it is true that this entire controversy stems from the same subject matter, namely, Frenkil’s main contract' with the District of Columbia, this Court has completely adjudicated the rights of both parties to the suit as originally brought, and what remains is a separate and distinct controversy between parties subsequently impleaded, namely, the main contractor and one of his subcontractors involving entirely distinct issues of alleged fraud and misrepresentation on the part of the former in his business relations with the latter.

As respects the third contention, namely, that since Frenkil has impleaded both the receiver and the surety of the original defendants, he is estopped from pressing this motion, it is well settled that the granting or denying permission to implead a third party defendant is a matter resting entirely within the sound discretion of the Court,—Glens Falls Indemnity Co. v. Atlantic Building Corp., 4 Cir., 199 F.2d 60; Lee’s Inc. v. Transcontinental Underwriters, D.C.Md., 9 F.R.D. 470; State of Maryland, To Use and Benefit of Wood v. Robinson, D.C.Md., 74 F.Supp. 279; Baltimore & Ohio v. Saunders, 4 Cir., 159 F.2d 481,—and since there is nothing in the Rule to indicate that discretion on the part of the Court does not equally apply with respect to a motion to withdraw or vacate such permission after it has been granted, what a party may have done in reliance upon this granting, is not necessarily controlling. The discretionary power still rests in the Court. But of course it must not be abused.

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Related

Larsen v. Powell
16 F.R.D. 322 (D. Colorado, 1954)
Duke v. Reconstruction Finance Corp.
209 F.2d 204 (Fourth Circuit, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
14 F.R.D. 265, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3841, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reconstruction-finance-corp-v-duke-mdd-1953.