United States v. Buffalo Pitts Company

• Decision Date: 08 June 1914
• Docket Number: No. 369,369
• Citation: 234 U.S. 228,58 L.Ed. 1290,34 S.Ct. 840
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err., v. BUFFALO PITTS COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

234 U.S. 228

34 S.Ct. 840

58 L.Ed. 1290

UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err.,

v BUFFALO PITTS COMPANY.

No. 369.

Submitted May 15, 1914.

Decided June 8, 1914.

Assistant Attorney General Underwood for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Edward Payson White for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

This suit was brought by the Buffalo Pitts Company in the circuit court of the United States for the western district of New York to recover for the value of the use of a certain engine which it was alleged the United States was under an implied contract to pay. The action was begun under the Tucker act of March 3, 1887 (24 Stat. at L. 505, chap. 359, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 752), and the court of original jurisdiction, as required by the statute, § 7, made findings of fact and conclusions of law under which it held the government liable and rendered judgment for the plaintiff's claim. On writ of error the circuit court of appeals affirmed that judgment (114 C. C. A. 119, 193 Fed. 905), and the case is brought here.

The findings of fact show that: The plaintiff is a corporation organized under the laws of New York, and having its principal place of business at Buffalo, New York, manufacturing, among other things, traction engines. On May 20, 1905, it sold a traction engine with appurtenances to the Taylor-Moore Construction Company, delivered at Roswell, New Mexico, and took a chattel mortgage thereon to secure the payment of $1,600 of the purchase price. The chattel mortgage conveyed the engine and appurtenances to the plaintiff on condition that if the mortgagor should fail to pay the sum of $1,600 according to certain notes, or should attempt to dispose of or injure the property, or remove the same from the county of Chaves, New Mexico, or if the mortgagor should not take proper care of the property, or if the mortgagee should at any time deem itself unsafe or insecure, then the whole amount unpaid should be considered immediately due and payable, and it should be lawful for the mortgagee to take the property and remove the same, and hold or sell it and all equity of redemption at public auction, with notice as provided by law. The mortgage was duly recorded May 22, 1905, and no part of the money thereby secured has ever been paid to the mortgagee, which has ever since been the owner and holder of the mortgage. The engine was put to work by the construction company upon the socalled Hondo Project, being part of the Reclamation Service undertaken by the Department of the Interior of the United States, which work was being prosecuted under a contract between the United States and the construction company, the engine being located at or near Roswell, New Mexico.

The construction company having made default in the performance of its contract, on or about June 7, 1905, work was suspended thereunder, and the construction company then assigned all its interest in the contract to the United States, which, pursuant to the contract, took possession of all material, supplies, and equipment belonging to the construction company, including the engine and appurtenances. On June 16, 1905, at Roswell, New Mexico, the plaintiff, by its agents, made a demand upon the defendant through Wendell M. Reed, District Engineer of the Reclamation Service under the Department of the Interior for the possession of the engine and appurtenances, which the defendant then and there refused, and thereafter it retained and used the property in the work under the contract until June 21, 1906. Reed was during, and before, and after, such period, the local representative of the government in charge of the work under the contract at and near Roswell, and as such took possession of the engine and appurtenances for the United States. Thereafter the defendant, by the Director of the United States Geological Survey, to whom the Secretary of the Interior referred the matter, and by the Chief Engineer and Assistant Chief Engineer of the Reclamation Service, under the direction of the Department, ratified and adopted the acts of Reed in respect to the possession of the engine and appurtenances. The mortgagor has never made any claim to the property since the suspension and assignment of the contract to the defendant.

Plaintiff, on or about June 16, 1905, and also on or about September 30, 1905, notified the defendant of the execution and filing of the chattel mortgage, and that the plaintiff claimed the property under the title thereby vested in it, and claimed the right of possession because of the default by the mortgagor in the conditions thereof, and the defendant at all times well knew of the existence and filing of the chattel mortgage, and did not at any time dispute the validity thereof. On September 30, 1905, the defendant represented to the plaintiff that it was using and would continue to use the engine and appurtenances in its work, and that any legal proceedings to recover the possession thereof would be resisted by the defendant, and further represented to the plaintiff that if such property was left in the defendant's possession, its attorney would recommend payment therefor. The plaintiff relied upon the fact that its title to the property under the chattel mortgage was not disputed by the defendant, and upon the representations made to it as aforesaid, and consented to defendant's retaining possession of the property in expectation of receiving due compensation therefor.

The question in this case is, did these facts warrant the deduction that the government was liable upon an implied contract to pay for the use of the engine? In cases brought under this act coming up from a district or circuit court of the United States, the findings of fact of the trial court are conclusive, and the question is whether the conclusions of law were warranted by the facts found (Chase v....