U. S. ex rel. Dundee Cement Co. v. Warren Bros.

365 F. Supp. 528, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11352
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Louisiana
DecidedOctober 26, 1973
DocketCiv. A. No. 71-379
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 365 F. Supp. 528 (U. S. ex rel. Dundee Cement Co. v. Warren Bros.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U. S. ex rel. Dundee Cement Co. v. Warren Bros., 365 F. Supp. 528, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11352 (M.D. La. 1973).

Opinion

E. GORDON WEST, District Judge:

Defendant, Warren Brothers Company, entered into a contract with the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of what is known as articulated concrete mattresses, devices used in river bank stabilization in flood control projects along the Mississippi River. The concrete mattresses were cast by .Warren Brothers at their plant in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Warren Brothers Company then entered into a contract with the plaintiff, Dundee Cement Company, pursuant to which plaintiff was to furnish the cement necessary for Warren Brothers to mix the concrete and fabricate the mattresses. At the completion of the project the plaintiff brought this suit against Warren Brothers and its surety, Insurance Company of North American, demanding the sum of $29,240.15 for what it alleges to be underpayment for cement furnished by the plaintiff pursuant to its contract with Warren Brothers. Plaintiff sought to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court under the Miller Act, 40 U.S.C. § 270a, which grounds for jurisdiction were contested by the defendants. Prior to trial, this Court resolved the Miller Act jurisdictional question in favor of the defendants and dismissed the Insurance Company of North American as a party defendant. The undisputed evidence established the fact that bid requirements for the job did not require that a payment bond be furnished and that in fact, no payment bond was furnished. Insurance Company of North America, as surety for Warren Brothers, furnished only a performance bond, which ran in favor of the United States Corps of Engineers and not in favor of any materialmen. [529]*529From the evidence it was apparent that pursuant to the provisions of 40 U.S.C. § 270e, the requirement of a payment bond had been waived, and thus the plaintiff had no claim under the Miller Act. But the requisite diversity of citizenship and jurisdictional amount was involved to give this Court jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332, and the plaintiff’s case against Warren Brothers was thus tried to this Court, without a jury, as a breach of contract case. The defendant had made a counterclaim against the plaintiff for damages allegedly caused by the plaintiff’s failure to make deliveries of cement on time, and the plaintiff answered this counterclaim by another counterclaim for demurrage costs, which it claimed were occasioned by failure of the defendant to accept deliveries when made. But before trial commenced, both of these counterclaims were abandoned and no longer form a part of this ease.

The gist of the plaintiff’s claim is that it shipped 198,815 barrels of cement to the defendant, but the defendant has only agreed to pay for 182,712 barrels, leaving a total of 16,103 barrels unpaid for. However, the plaintiff says that it cannot account for 8,092 of these unpaid for barrels of cement unless that loss be attributed to spread and yield loss for which the plaintiff admits the defendant would not be liable under the contract, and so it, the plaintiff, is not asking the defendant to pay for these 8,092 barrels. But as for the remaining 8,011 barrels of cement, the plaintiff contends that there is ample evidence to justify the conclusion that the concrete mixed by the defendant was over-batched to the extent of 8,011 barrels of cement and that thus the defendant should be held liable for payment for that cement. The defendant denies any over-batching (using cement over and above that called for in the concrete specifications) and alleges further that even if some over-batching did occur, that that possibility was taken into consideration in the contract fixing the price to be paid by defendant for the cement furnished by the plaintiff. While much evidence was introduced concerning whether or not over-batching did in fact occur, under the circumstances of this ease, it is not necessary to resolve that question.

A contract was entered into between the plaintiff and the defendant whereby the defendant would purchase from the plaintiff “approximately 192,000 barrels of cement.” After stating that the price of the cement was $3.65 per barrel subject to a $.20 per barrel discount if invoices were paid on or before the 10th day of the month following shipment, the contract went on to provide:

“For the purpose of payment, however, barrels will be determined in the following manner:
“Full payment for cement delivered to this project will be determined as 104 percent of barrels paid for by the USCE [U.S. Corps of Engineers]. Regardless of the barrels shipped and/or invoiced, the effect of this agreement is that the cement paid for by Warren Brothers Company will be 4 percent more than that amount accepted and paid for by the USCE.
“Warren Brothers Company agrees to pay by monthly statement for the barrels shipped to the job by barge draft weight. These draft weights will be adjusted at the termination of the contract and payment to Dundee will be made based on the amount of barrels paid for by the USCE, plus the 4 percent as stated above.”

It is an undisputed fact that the United States Corps of Engineers paid for 174,-242 barrels, and that the defendant, Warren Brothers, was obligated to pay for these 174,242 barrels plus 4 percent thereof, or an additional 6,970 barrels. It is also undisputed that the defendant received and was obligated to pay for an additional 1,500 barrels of cement that it received and furnished to another contractor, one Lambert. Thus, there is no dispute about the fact that Warren Brothers was obligated, by its contract with the plaintiff, to pay, at the stipu[530]*530lated rate, for 182,712 barrels of cement. But now the plaintiff says that it actually shipped 198,815 barrels, or 16,103 barrels more than the defendant has paid for. Plaintiff says that it is willing to absorb a loss of 8,092 barrels over and beyond' the 104 percent of what was paid for by the Corps of Engineers as it concludes that that amount constituted a “spread and yield loss” taken into consideration when the 104 percent figure was agreed upon, even though that “spread and yield loss” amounted to more than was anticipated. But the plaintiff says that the remaining 8,011 barrels furnished but unpaid for was the result of defendant over-batching its concrete, and that this factor was not considered when the 104 percent figure was agreed upon.

It is difficult to understand, from the evidence in this case, how the plaintiff can, under the terms of its contract with the defendant, differentiate between a “spread and yield loss” and a loss occasioned by over-batching, if indeed any such over-batching did occur, when neither of these terms are in any way referred to or mentioned in the contract. The evidence makes it clear that the settings on the batcher machine were made daily by the Corps of Engineers, and those settings could not be changed by the defendant. Warren Brothers had no control over the batcher settings and it was for this reason, among others, that the price to be paid by the defendant for the cement was pegged to the cement paid for by the Corps of Engineers. There is little doubt but that as far as the plaintiff was concerned, it was the 4 percent extra that the defendant agreed to pay that induced it to enter into this contract.

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Bluebook (online)
365 F. Supp. 528, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11352, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/u-s-ex-rel-dundee-cement-co-v-warren-bros-lamd-1973.