Swiss Federal Railways v. United States

112 F. Supp. 357, 125 Ct. Cl. 444, 1953 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 174
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJune 2, 1953
DocketNo. 48750
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 112 F. Supp. 357 (Swiss Federal Railways 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
Swiss Federal Railways v. United States, 112 F. Supp. 357, 125 Ct. Cl. 444, 1953 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 174 (cc 1953).

Opinions

Jones, Chief Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The Swiss Federal Railways, a branch or agency of the Swiss Government, has filed this suit to recover the value of some metallic railway tires which were requisitioned by the United States Government on May 20,1943. Subsequent to the filing of this suit the Confederation of Switzerland was added as a party plaintiff. Since all the transactions described were carried on in the name of the Swiss Federal Railways, and for reasons set out below, the term plaintiff shall be deemed to refer to that agency throughout this opinion.

On June 20, 1940, the plaintiff, Swiss Federal Railways, ordered 420 machined, rolled, flanged railway tires in five different sizes from the Baldwin Locomotive Works, at a price of $6.39 per hundredweight. The manufacture of these tires was completed and they were shipped to New York for export to plaintiff about November 22, 1940. Payment of the purchase price was made therefor.

Plaintiff was unable to secure a navicert from the British Government permitting the shipment of these tires through the British blockade. One hundred and ninety of them were placed in storage at Verona, Pennsylvania, and 230 at Bum-ham, Pennsylvania. The tires were intended for use on rolling stock of the Swiss Federal Railways in Switzerland.

[447]*447About January 1, 1942, the Baldwin Locomotive Works began an effort to effect a sale of these tires for plaintiff’s account. Descriptions of the tires were furnished to the company’s sales agents in England, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as to the War Production Board and the Engineer Procurement District of the War Department. Two hundred of the tires were sold to the Paulista Railroad of Brazil on October 6, 1942, at $6.32 per hundredweight, and 12 tires were sold to the Havana Terminal Railroad Company of Cuba on October 15,1942, at the same price. These concerns purchased only the quantities they needed at the time and were unable or unwilling to purchase any part of the balance. No other sales could be effected since the tires had been manufactured to the dimensions required to fit plaintiff’s rolling stock. These were not adaptable for use by railroads in other countries where attempts were made to sell them. The tires were in good condition. If a purchaser could have been found who desired tires of that size they were in satisfactory physical condition for use as tires. There was no available market for their sale as tires. The only immediate available market on the date of the requisition was for use as scrap.

If a purchaser could have been found for the tires on the date of requisition they could have been sold on the domestic market for $5.70 per hundredweight and on the export market for $6.46 per hundredweight, f. o. b. Pittsburgh, these being established ceiling prices of the Office of Price Administration. At these prices the requisitioned tires would have amounted to $8,100.84 on the domestic market, and $9,180.95 for the export market. As scrap material the tires had a value of $1,003.14.

On May 20, 1943, the defendant, acting through the War Production Board, pursuant to the act of October 10, 1940, 54 Stat. 1090, as amended, requisitioned and took possession of the 190 of such tires which were in storage at Yerona, Pennsylvania, the weight of such tires being 142,120 pounds.

On July 27, 1943, the Chairman of the War Production Board made an award of compensation for such tires. The award was made on the basis of the scrap value of the tires at the time of taking, the amoimt of the award being $1,003.14.

[448]*448Plaintiff was unwilling to accept the award as full payment for the requisitioned tires. On February 20, 1945, the Metals Reserve Company paid to plaintiff’s attorney-in-fact the sum of $501.57, that amount being 50 percent of the award made by the War Production Board.

The question is what was the value of the tires at the time and place of taking.

The plaintiff insists that it is entitled to the ceiling price of these tires either at the domestic market of $5.70 per hundredweight, or on the export market at $6.46 per hundredweight. These were the established ceiling prices. This would undoubtedly be the rate of compensation had there been a market for these tires. But there was no available market for these tires at the time and place of the requisition. Extensive effort had been made to dispose of them over a 17-month period. Only 212 of the tires could be disposed of in the limited outlet, due to the wartime conditions and the special sizes of the tires.

In the absence of a market the ceiling price is not the measure of recovery. It is only a top limit of what may be proved as the actual or intrinsic value of the article at the time and place of the taking.

The Supreme Court has rejected the cost to plaintiff as the measure of recovery. United States v. Felin, 334 U. S. 624. It has also rejected the retention value as such as being speculative. In the absence of sufficient evidence to establish an adequate market value as the measure of recovery, we must endeavor from all the facts and circumstances, and in the light of wartime conditions, to find the actual value of these tires at the time and place of taking.

The defendant earnestly insists that the only market value at the time was the value of these tires as scrap metal; that there was a market for scrap, and that this must be the measure, therefore, of plaintiff’s recovery. In the circumstances of this case we must also reject this as not being the proper measure of just compensation.

The defendant relies heavily upon the case of United States v. Commodities Trading Corporation, 339 U. S. 121. That was a suit for the value of pepper which was requisitioned by the Government. The cost of the pepper had been [449]*449greater than the ceiling price. The Supreme Court limited plaintiff’s recovery to the ceiling price. In commenting on the issue there raised the Court states, at page 123:

This Court has never attempted to prescribe a rigid rule for determining what is “just compensation” under all circumstances and in all cases. * * * But when market value has been too difficult to find, or when its application would result in manifest injustice to owner or public, courts have fashioned and applied other standards. * * * the dominant consideration always remains the same: What compensation is “just” both to an owner whose property is taken and to the public that must pay the bill?

The defendant insists that since the Court in the Commodities case rejected the retention value as such as being too speculative and uncertain to be the final measure of recovery, especially since that price would be discriminatory against the dealers in the commodity generally who went along and delivered their pepper, that plaintiff in this case is completely out of the picture; that no actual value can be found in the tires and the plaintiff is necessarily limited to' the value of the material that went into the making of the tires on the basis of scrap.

We cannot conceive of that being the basis of the value of the kind of article in issue in this case.

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Related

In re the Valuation Proceedings under Sections 303(c) & 306
445 F. Supp. 994 (Special Court under the Regional Rail Reorganization Act, 1977)
Alpirn v. United States
113 F. Supp. 681 (Court of Claims, 1953)

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Bluebook (online)
112 F. Supp. 357, 125 Ct. Cl. 444, 1953 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swiss-federal-railways-v-united-states-cc-1953.