United States v. Malan Construction Corporation
Decision Date | 28 November 1958 |
Docket Number | No. 3253.,3253. |
Citation | 168 F. Supp. 255 |
Parties | UNITED STATES for the use of JAMES F. O'NEIL COMPANY, Inc., v. MALAN CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION and Continental Casualty Company. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee |
Porteous & Johnson, Wm. A. Porteous, Jr., New Orleans, La., Poore, Cox, Baker & McAuley, J. W. Baker, Knoxville, Tenn., for plaintiff.
W. W. Kennerly, Donaldson, Montgomery & Kennerly, Knoxville, Tenn., for defendant.
This is a matter arising under the Miller Act, 40 U.S.C.A. §§ 270a-270d. The plaintiff in this case was a sub-contractor of Malan Construction Corporation (hereinafter called Malan), a prime contractor of the Atomic Energy Commission for the building of a Multi-curie Fission Products Pilot Plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The plaintiff, O'Neil Company, Inc., (hereinafter called O'Neil), was a Louisiana Corporation and defendant Malan was a New York Corporation. In the course of the work a dispute arose and O'Neil has sued Malan and its bonding company for $82,318.33.
The defendants have made a motion for summary judgment on the ground that the plaintiff, a foreign corporation, did not qualify itself to do business in the State of Tennessee in compliance with the statutory requirements of that state. Defendants contend that plaintiff's failure to comply with the statute rendered its activities in the state illegal and that it is precluded from maintaining this suit as a matter of law.
Section 1 of the Miller Act (40 U.S.C. A. § 270a) provides that before any contract exceeding $2,000 in amount for the construction of any public building or public work of the United States is awarded to any person or contractor, such person or contractor shall furnish to the United States a payment bond for the protection of all persons supplying labor and material in the prosecution of the work provided for in said contract.
Section 2 of the Miller Act (40 U.S.C. A. § 270b) provides that every person (not just those who have qualified under state laws) who has furnished labor or material in the prosecution of the work under such contract and who has not been paid in full therefor "shall have the right to sue on such payment bond for the amount, or the balance thereof, unpaid at the time of institution of such suit and to prosecute said action to final judgment for the sums justly due him: ......"
Section 2 also provides that every suit instituted under that section "shall be brought in the name of the United States for the use of the persons suing, in the United States District Court for any district in which the contract was to be performed and executed and not elsewhere, irrespective of the amount in controversy in such suit, but no such suit shall be commenced after the expiration of one year after the date of final settlement of such contract."
It seems clear from an examination of Sections 1 and 2 of the Miller Act that Congress was creating a right for the benefit of persons supplying labor and material on Federal construction. Such suppliers were not permitted a lien upon public buildings or public works of the United States; and the Miller Act and its predecessor, the Heard Act, were enacted to give such suppliers needed protection. It is clear that in so doing Congress was creating a right under Federal laws irrespective of the amount in suit and provided that suit thereon should be brought in the United States District Courts and not elsewhere. It seems clear also that the rights so created by the Miller Act are not based on the diversity statute since there is no jurisdictional amount. This being true, if the jurisdiction of this court rests not on diversity of citizenship but on substantive rights created by an Act of Congress, then limitations which the Tennessee courts have placed upon the right to sue have no relevance here.
But for the fact that it interprets the Federal Employers' Liability Act, 45 U. S.C.A. § 51 et seq., rather than the Miller Act, the case of Dice v. Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railroad Co., 342 U.S. 359, 361, 72 S.Ct. 312, 314, 96 L.Ed. 398, is almost on all fours with our case here. Therein the question was raised whether the validity of a release taken under the F. E. L. A. was determined by federal rather than state law. The Court said:
* * *"(Emphasis supplied)
In a very recent case, Lyon v. Quality Courts United, Inc., 249 F.2d 790, 793, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in an opinion by Judge Stewart (now Mr. Justice Stewart of the United States Supreme Court) dealt with an analogous situation in the field of trademark law. In that case the plaintiff sought to enjoin a corporate motel owner from using plaintiff's trademark to advertise its motel. A defense was made that the case was essentially an action ex contractu and that Federal jurisdiction rested only upon diversity of citizenship and that since the plaintiff had carried on activities in Ohio without having been licensed in Ohio, it was barred from maintaining the action both in the courts of Ohio and in the Federal Court.
We quote at some length from the opinion of the Court of Appeals and note that the Court concluded that a substantial claim under Federal laws was stated, and affirmed the action of the District Court in holding that failure to secure a license from the State of Ohio was not an impediment to maintenance of the action in the Ohio Federal Court.
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