SUWANNEE STEAMSHIP COMPANY v. United States
Decision Date | 08 June 1960 |
Docket Number | No. 397-55.,397-55. |
Citation | 279 F.2d 874,150 Ct. Cl. 331 |
Parties | SUWANNEE STEAMSHIP COMPANY v. UNITED STATES. |
Court | U.S. Claims Court |
Charles E. Channing, Jr., Washington, D. C., for plaintiff. Hugh Lynch, Jr., and Macleay, Lynch & Macdonald, Washington, D. C., were on the briefs.
Anthony W. Gross, Washington, D. C., with whom was Asst. Atty. Gen. George Cochran Doub, for defendant. Leavenworth Colby, Washington, D. C., was on the brief.
The plaintiff sues for $20,000 which, it says, the United States Maritime Commission collected from it, without legal authority.
Two ships, LSD-10 and LSD-11 were after World War II, declared surplus by the Navy and were certified to the Maritime Commission for sale. The Commission in 1947 advertised for bids. The advertisement required that bidders be citizens of the United States. Atlas Metals Corporation submitted a bid of $126,100 per ship. The bid was accepted and the ships were delivered to Atlas in 1948. Atlas was thereafter merged into National Petroleum Transport Corporation which agreed to be bound by all the conditions to which Atlas was bound.
On September 4, 1951, National Petroleum entered into an agreement to sell the ships to the plaintiff, Suwannee Steamship Company, for $215,000 per ship, the agreement being subject to the approval of the Maritime Administration, hereinafter called Maritime, which had succeeded to the functions of the United States Maritime Commission. An assumption agreement was made between the plaintiff and Maritime, dated October 4, 1951, by which Maritime consented to the transfer of the ships to the plaintiff, and the plaintiff agreed that it would, within 18 calendar months, either (1) convert the ships in a United States shipyard for commercial operation, and document the ships under the laws of the United States, or (2) completely scrap the hulls of the ships within the continental limits of the United States. The agreement specifically stated that it was not to be construed as indicating that approval would be granted to any application for transfer of the ships to any foreign ownership, registry or flag, or to the operation of the vessels other than under American registry, unless operation otherwise was specifically approved by the Maritime Administrator pursuant to sections 9 and 37 of the Shipping Act of 1916, 39 Stat. 728, as amended, 46 U.S.C.A. §§ 808 and 835.
On January 24, 1952, the plaintiff applied to Maritime for approval of the sale of the two ships to Honduras Shipping Company, an affiliate of the plaintiff, and approval of the transfer of the ships to Honduran registry and flag. Maritime, on April 28, 1952, wrote the plaintiff as follows:
The plaintiff accepted the terms stipulated in the writing above quoted, which terms were in due course incorporated in formal documents, paid the $20,000 and, so far as appears, has subsequently done what it agreed to do.
The plaintiff's petition is based upon its contention that Maritime had no legal authority to condition its approval of the requested transfer upon the payment of $20,000. It has made a motion for summary judgment, asserting that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact.
The Government opposes the plaintiff's motion, saying that the plaintiff has failed to meet its burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact. It says that the plaintiff has not proved its title to the vessels. It says:
In its "Counter-Statement of Facts", the Government summarizes each of the transactions between the plaintiff, and its predecessors in title, and Maritime, and concludes several of these summaries with a statement such as "Whether the representations of plaintiff were true or fraudulent is not reflected by the record in this case."
We do not understand the Government's reason for injecting these numerous intimations of possible fraud. It filed an answer which contained no plea or intimation of fraud.
It has filed affidavits of officials of Maritime containing no allegations or intimations of fraud. Can it be the Government's position that no case is ever ripe for decision on a plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, since there lurks in every case at least one issue of fact, i. e., whether the plaintiff is a cheat and a scoundrel?
We think the case is in order for decision on the plaintiff's motion.
As to the legal merits of the plaintiff's claim, the case is, in all material respects, like the case of Clapp v. United States, 117 F.Supp. 576, 127 Ct.Cl. 505, certiorari denied 348 U.S. 834, 75 S.Ct. 55, 99 L.Ed. 658. In that case this court held that the Maritime officials had no authority to exact a payment of $7,500 from a ship owner as a condition to his receiving permission to sell his ship to a foreign purchaser.
The Government urges that Maritime had the power to deny the plaintiff permission to make the desired transfer, and had, under section 41 of the Shipping Act of September 7, 1916, 46 U.S.C.A. § 839, complete freedom to impose conditions upon any permission granted. Section 41 says:
"Whenever by section 808 * * of this title the approval of the Commission (Administration) is required to render any act or transaction lawful, such approval may be accorded either absolutely or upon such conditions as the Commission (Adm...
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