SUWANNEE STEAMSHIP COMPANY v. United States

Decision Date08 June 1960
Docket NumberNo. 397-55.,397-55.
Citation279 F.2d 874,150 Ct. Cl. 331
PartiesSUWANNEE STEAMSHIP COMPANY v. UNITED STATES.
CourtU.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.

MADDEN, Judge.

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:

"This is to advise you that the Maritime Administrator under date of April 28, 1952, approved the placing of the subject vessels under Honduran registry and flag with ownership to remain in Suwannee Steamship Company and departure of the subject vessels from a United States Port or Ports, upon the following condition that prior to the issuance of formal Transfer Order evidencing such approval:
"(1) Suwannee Steamship Company pay to the Maritime Administration the sum of $10,000 per ship in consideration for the Maritime Administration\'s amendment of the contract resulting from its action of October 4, 1951, and releasing said Company from its obligation to document and operate said vessels under the laws of the United States;
"(2) Suwannee Steamship Company shall agree that said vessel shall be converted to railway car ferries in a shipyard within the United States;
"(3) That Suwannee Steamship Company and its sole stockholder, W. R. Lovett, shall furnish an Agreement guaranteeing that for the period of the National Emergency as proclaimed by the President on December 16, 1950:
"(a) Said vessels, whether owned by Suwannee Steamship Company or any subsequent transferee, shall, if requested by the United States or any qualified department or agency thereof, be sold or chartered to the United States on the same terms and conditions upon which a vessel owned by a citizen of the United States could be requisitioned for purchase or charter as provided in Section 902, Merchant Marine Act 1936, as amended, unless said vessels are lost or scrapped;
"(b) Said vessels shall not engage in operations prohibited to United States flag vessels under Department of Commerce Transportation Orders T-1 or T-2, or of any modification thereof, so long as they remain in force; and
"(4) In the event of any default under (2) and/or (3) hereof, the contracting parties shall pay to the Maritime Administration, Department of Commerce, as liquidated damages and not as a penalty, the sum of $25,000 lawful money of the United States of America, for each vessel involved in said default, said payment to be secured by a surety bond, or other surety satisfactory to the General Counsel of the Maritime Administration.
"Will you kindly indicate your acceptance of the above conditions so that appropriate documents may be prepared."

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:

"Whether the title of Atlas Metals Corporation and the unproved title of National Petroleum Transport Corporation were validly or fraudulently acquired depend upon the truth or falsity of numerous representations made by the said companies to the Maritime Commission. The record is devoid of any proof of the truth of those representations."

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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13 cases
  • Eastport Steamship Corporation v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Claims Court
    • February 17, 1967
    ...United States, 117 F.Supp. 576, 127 Ct.Cl. 505 (1954), cert. denied, 348 U.S. 834, 75 S.Ct. 55, 99 L.Ed. 658; Suwannee S.S. v. United States, 279 F.2d 874, 150 Ct.Cl. 331 (1960); Seatrade Corp. v. United States, 285 F.2d 448, 152 Ct.Cl. 356 (1961). Those claimants were allowed to recover th......
  • Aerolineas Argentinas v. U.S., s. 94-5076
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit
    • February 28, 1996
    ...illegally collected from the plaintiff as fines under void convictions and sentences. See also Suwannee S.S. Co. v. United States, 150 Ct.Cl. 331, 335-36, 279 F.2d 874, 876 (1960) (ship owner may recover payment illegally exacted as a condition of receiving permission to sell ship to a fore......
  • Perry v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Claims Court
    • June 17, 2020
    ...that the government illegally collected from the plaintiff as fines under void convictions and sentences); Suwannee S.S. Co. v. United States, 150 Ct. Cl. 331, 335-36 (1960) (ship owner may recover payment illegally exacted as a condition of receiving permission to sell ship to a foreign pu......
  • South Puerto Rico Sugar Co. Trad. Corp. v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Claims Court
    • July 17, 1964
    ...139 Ct.Cl. 605, 612 (1957); Seatrade Corp. v. United States, 285 F.2d 448, 449, 152 Ct.Cl. 356, 359 (1961); Suwannee S. S. Co. v. United States, 279 F.2d 874, 150 Ct.Cl. 331 (1960)),4 and we now adhere to it for plaintiff's claim. The foreign affairs aspects of this case do not take it outs......
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1 books & journal articles
  • Self-study Article: Litigating the Fbar Penalty in District Court and the Court of Federal Claims
    • United States
    • California Lawyers Association California Tax Lawyer (CLA) No. 23-1, March 2014
    • Invalid date
    ...an illegal exaction has occurred when "the Government has the citizen's money in its pocket." See also Suwanee S.S. Co. v. United States, 279 F.2d 874, 876 (1960) (ship owner may recover payment illegally exacted as a condition of receiving permission to sell ship to a foreign purchaser).Be......

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