In re Dutcher Construction Corporation

• Decision Date: 06 February 1962
• Docket Number: No. 197,Docket 27246.,197
• Citation: 298 F.2d 655
• Parties: In the Matter of DUTCHER CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION, Bankrupt.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

298 F.2d 655 (1962)

In the Matter of DUTCHER CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION, Bankrupt.

No. 197, Docket 27246.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued January 19, 1962.

Decided February 6, 1962.

Raymond T. Miles, Buffalo, N. Y., for appellant, Chester A. Pearlman, Trustee in Bankruptcy of Dutcher Construction Corporation.

Mark N. Turner, Buffalo, N. Y. (Vaughan, Brown, Kelly, Turner & Symons, Buffalo, N. Y., on the brief), for respondent, Reliance Ins. Co.

John G. Street, Jr., Fort Worth, Tex., amicus curiæ supporting the contentions of appellant.

Thomas W. Murphy, Phoenix, Ariz. (Murphy & Mirkin, Phoenix, Ariz.), amicus curiae supporting the contentions of appellant.

Before MEDINA, MOORE and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

MEDINA, Circuit Judge.

The trustee in bankruptcy of Dutcher Construction Corporation appeals from an order of Judge Henderson, reversing the Referee and holding that petitioner-appellee Reliance Insurance Company (formerly named Fire Association of Philadelphia) was entitled to a fund of $87,737.35 previously paid by the Government to the trustee. Opinion below reported at 197 F.Supp. 441.

The case is interesting and important, as it involves the controversial question of whether a surety, having paid materialmen and laborers pursuant to the terms of a payment bond, but not having completed performance of work required by the prime contract with the Government, is entitled by way of subrogation to the fund paid to the trustee in bankruptcy by the Government for the work done by the contractor prior to the termination of the contract. We think the legal principles formulated by the courts on this subject under the Heard Act, 28 Stat. 278 (1894), amended 33 Stat. 811 (1905), were not affected or altered by the Miller Act, 49 Stat. 793 (1935), 40 U.S.C.A. § 270a, which superseded the Heard Act. With all due respect to our brothers of the 9th and 10th Circuits, we believe they have misconstrued the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Munsey Trust Company, 1947, 332 U.S. 234, 67 S.Ct. 1599, 91 L.Ed. 2022, and we disagree with the decisions in those Circuits holding the surety not entitled to subrogation. Phoenix Indemnity Co. v. Earle, 9 Cir., 1955, 218 F.2d 645; American Surety Co. of New York v. Hinds, 10 Cir., 1958, 260 F.2d 366.

The facts are stipulated. In April of 1955 Dutcher contracted with the United States to perform work on the Saint Lawrence Seaway project. Prior to awarding the contract, the Government required Dutcher to supply the customary surety bonds, a performance bond and a payment bond. This was done pursuant to the Miller Act, 40 U.S.C.A. § 270a, which provides:

"Before any contract, exceeding $2,000 in amount, for the construction, alteration, or repair of any public building or public work of the United States is awarded to any person, such person shall furnish to the United States the following bonds, which shall become binding upon the award of the contract to such person, who is hereinafter designated as `contractor\':

"(1) A performance bond with a surety or sureties satisfactory to the officer awarding such contract, and in such amount as he shall deem adequate, for the protection of the United States.

"(2) A payment bond with a surety or sureties satisfactory to such officer for the protection of all persons supplying labor and material in the prosecution of the work provided for in said contract for the use of each such person."

Reliance is the surety on these bonds.

On April 11, 1956 the Government, with the consent of Dutcher, terminated the contract. During the preceding year Dutcher incurred obligations to pay for labor and materials in the performance of the contract. Dutcher did not meet these obligations. The surety did pay them, in the amount of $326,248.42, for labor and materials, and additional sums for expenses, and in satisfaction of a judgment against the surety for tires furnished for use on the job, amounting in all to $349,172.81. These bills were paid by the surety in the Spring and Summer of 1956. At the end of August, 1956 Dutcher was adjudicated bankrupt.

Prior to the termination of the contract, Dutcher had earned, after Government deductions, $127,737.35 for the work done up to that time, and this represented the labor and materials that had gone into the job. This sum, owing to Dutcher, was reduced by $40,000, the cost to the Government of completing the job. This consisted of the proper shaping and dressing of the spoil area. The balance, $87,737.35, was paid by the Government to appellant, as Trustee for Dutcher. The surety petitioned for an order in bankruptcy directing the transfer of this fund to the surety. The Referee, relying upon Munsey and the Hinds decision by the 10th Circuit denied the petition, and Judge Henderson reversed the Referee and held the surety entitled to the fund by subrogation. We affirm.

All parties agree that the surety is subrogated to the rights of the laborers and materialmen. What this entitles the surety to is hornbook law and is set forth in Osborne, Suretyship (1955) at page 20, "It * * * entitles the surety to enjoy any priority that the creditor enjoyed." See also Restatement, Security § 141, comment c. (1941). Thus, the only question in this case, and the decisive one, is — were the laborers and materialmen entitled to a priority in the $87,737.35?

Under the Heard Act

The Heard Act required a contractor entering on the construction of any public work for the United States to "execute the usual penal bond, with good and sufficient sureties, with the additional obligations that such contractor or contractors shall promptly make payments to all persons supplying him or them labor and materials in the prosecution of the work provided for in such contract." 33 Stat. 812 (1905). In Henningsen v. U. S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 1907, 208 U.S. 404, 28 S.Ct. 389, 52 L.Ed. 547, the surety which had paid materialmen and laborers upon the contractor's failure to do so, claimed a fund due from the Government as against a creditor of the contractor who held an assignment. It was argued by the creditor that the surety had no right prior to the assignment as the materialmen and the laborers had no lien on the Government property under construction, as the contractor and not the surety had completed performance under the contract, and as the materialmen and the laborers never had any right to the fund. In rejecting these contentions the Supreme Court held, 208 U.S. at page 410, 28 S.Ct. at page 391:

"It the surety paid the laborers and materialmen, and thus released the contractor from his obligations to them, and to the same extent released the government from all equitable obligations to see that the laborers and supply men were paid. It did this not as a volunteer, but by reason of contract obligations entered into before the commencement of the work."

This would seem to be plain enough. But Henningsen was commented upon in Belknap Hardware & Mfg. Co. v. Ohio River Contract Co., 6 Cir., 1921, 271 F. 144, and the priority of materialmen and laborers spelled out in no uncertain terms, at pp. 148-149:

"In that case Henningsen, the surety upon a bond of this kind a payment bond, given pursuant to the 1894 statute, and who had been compelled to pay its surety obligation, was held entitled to priority in the retained fund as against a general creditor of the contractor. * * * The surety\'s claim of priority in the fund was sustained, and this was done on the stated theory of subrogation. Since there cannot be the transfer of a right by subrogation, unless there is a right to be transferred, we think the necessary effect of the decision is to hold that the laborers and materialmen, in spite of or in addition to the giving of the bond, had an original and continuing equitable priority in the fund, and that it was this right to which the surety was subrogated."

The Miller Act

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