National Valve & Mfg. Co. v. Grimshaw
| Decision Date | 26 April 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. 4034.,4034. |
| Citation | 181 F.2d 687 |
| Parties | NATIONAL VALVE & MFG. CO. v. GRIMSHAW et al. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Truman B. Rucker, Oklahoma City, Okl. (Clayton B. Pierce, Oklahoma City, Okl., B. W. Tabor, and Joe Francis, Tulsa, Okl., on the brief), for appellant.
Norma Wheaton, Tulsa, Okl. (Robert D. Hudson, Tulsa, Okl., on the brief), for appellees.
Before BRATTON, HUXMAN and PICKETT, Circuit Judges.
W. R. Grimshaw Company, a partnership composed of W. R. Grimshaw, Sr., W. R. Grimshaw, Jr., Harry D. Grimshaw, and Bertha Grimshaw, entered into a contract with Public Service Company of Oklahoma to construct a building as an enlargement of a generating plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma. National Valve & Manufacturing Company entered into a contract with Public Service Company to install certain pipes, fittings, valves, and guages in the building. L. L. Conner was an employee of National Valve & Manufacturing Company. While engaged in his work as a pipe fitter at the building, Conner suffered accidental death. The administrator of his estate filed an action in the District Court of Tulsa County, Oklahoma, against Public Service Company, National Valve & Manufacturing Company, W. R. Grimshaw Company, and the individuals composing the latter company for the recovery of damages. National Valve & Manufacturing Company made demand upon defendants W. R. Grimshaw Company and the individuals composing such company that they indemnify and save it harmless from loss by reason of the suit, and it tendered to them the opportunity to appear for and defend it in the suit. The demand for indemnification was refused and the tendered opportunity to defend the action was declined. Verdict was returned and judgment entered against National Valve & Manufacturing Company, W. R. Grimshaw Company, and the individual members composing such company. All of such defendants appealed to the Supreme Court of the State.
After the appeal of the case in the state court, National Valve & Manufacturing Company instituted in the United States Court this action against W. R. Grimshaw, Sr., W. R. Grimshaw, Jr., Harry R. Grimshaw, and Bertha Grimshaw, as individuals, and as a copartnership doing business under the firm name of W. R. Grimshaw Company for a declaratory judgment determining that defendants indemnify and hold complainant harmless against loss of any amount it should thereafter be compelled to pay in discharging the judgment rendered in the state court, together with all reasonable expenses including attorneys fees incurred in the defense of suit. It was alleged in the complaint that defendants W. R. Grimshaw Company and the individuals composing such company had been held liable in the suit in the state court because of primary, positive, and active negligence; that the negligence of complainant, as alleged and upon which the judgment was predicated, was secondary and passive; that as between complainant and defendants here, they were not in pari delicto there; that complainant was in dire peril of being mulcted in damages because of the judgment, and of being required to expend large sums to defend the suit; and that it was necessary that the rights of complainant and the duties and obligations of defendants be judicially determined by judgment, as provided by Title 28, section 2201, of the United States Code Annotated. Expressing the view that the complaint failed to disclose a justiciable controversy between the parties then presently ripe for judicial decree, the court dismissed the action without prejudice to the institution of another action for appropriate declaratory judgment after the Supreme Court of the state had made disposition of the case pending before it. Complainant appealed.
Title 28, section 2201, United States Code Annotated, provides in presently material part that in a case of actual controversy within its jurisdiction, a court of the United States may declare the rights and other legal relations of any interested party seeking such declaration, whether further relief is or could be sought; and that such a declaration shall have the force and effect of a final judgment or decree. The statute is procedural in nature, designed to expedite and simplify the ascertainment of uncertain rights. It is essential to the exercise of jurisdiction under ...
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