Case ID: f2d_42/html/0342-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

ATLANTIC REFINING CO. v. UNITED STATES.
    No. C-1249.
    Court of Claims.
    June 16, 1930.
    This suit was instituted to recover $39, 178.42.
    Special Findings of Fact.
    1. Plaintiff, a Pennsylvania corporation, with principal office and place of business at Philadelphia, is and was engaged in buying, selling, and refining petroleum, oil, gasoline, fuel oil, and other products thereof, and for such purposes constructing, purchasing, maintaining, owning, and operating a fleet of tankers and other ships.
    2. At all the times hereinafter mentioned plaintiff was the owner of and now owns five steam tankers known as J. E. O’Neill, J. C. Donnell, Herbert L. Pratt, W. M. Irish, and W. M. Burton. August 30, 1917, these tankers were under construction and were known, respectively, as hulls 143, 205, 144, 148, and 149. The O’Neill, Pratt, Irish, and Burton were under construction at San Francisco, Cal., and their construction was completed by the Bethehem Shipbuilding Corporation. The Donnell was under construction at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydoek Company at Newport News, Va.
    3. Acting through the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, the defendant, by virtue of o the authority conferred on the President of the United States by the Urgent Deficiencies Act of June 15,1917, 40 Stat. 182, and by him delegated to said Fleet Corporation by Executive Order dated July 11, 1917, duly requisitioned the tankers under construction and the materials therefor by order dated August 3, 1917.
    4. The defendant on January 1, February 6, February 25, and April 7, 1918, through the Fleet Corporation, informed plaintiff in writing that the tankers heretofore referred to were about completed; that, although final figures covering the cost of completing them were not available, it was estimated that the cost of completing the O’Neill would be about $640,000; the Donnell, about $800,000; the Pratt, about $1,-170,000; the Irish, about $1,640,000; and the Burton, about $1,650,000.
    5. The defendant, through its agent, required plaintiff to deposit the above-mentioned sums to be expended by defendant in the completion of the tankers. Pursuant to this demand and for the purposes stated, plaintiff deposited the sums mentioned with the defendant; the deposit in respect of the O’Neill being made January 2, the Donnell January 16, the Pratt February 7, the Irish April 12, and the Burton April 30, all in the year 1918. The total amount paid by plaintiff to defendant was $5,925,000.
    6. The tankers were completed January 10 and 22, March 1, May 2, and June 25, 1918, respectively, pursuant to the plans therefor, as modified by the defendant through the- Fleet Corporation, at divers times subsequent to June 3, 1917; and the tankers were delivered on or about the dates of their completion by the defendant through the Fleet Corporation to. plaintiff in accordance with requisition agreements and charters executed, respectively, for the ships by plaintiff and defendant. The defendant, through the Fleet Corporation, paid for the account of completing the tankers mentioned the total sum of $5,904,926.14. Deducting this amount from the amount of $5,925,000 deposited by plaintiff with the defendant for completing the tankers leaves a balance due plaintiff by defendant of $20,073.86, no part of which has been paid.
    I. J. Williams, of Philadelphia, Pa. (John H. Stone and Francis Shunk Brown, both of Philadelphia, on the brief), for plaintiff.
    J. Frank Staley and Herman J. Galloway, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.
    Before BOOTH, Chief Justice, and GRAHAM, GREEN, LITTLETON and WILLIAMS, Judges.
   PER CURIAM.

There is no controversy in this case as to the right of plaintiff to recover, nor as to the amount which is due it. Payment of the amount had been withheld by the defendant on account of its claim that the plaintiff was otherwise indebted to the government in respect of the operation of these and other vessels by plaintiff under charter from the defendant.

This claim of indebtedness was set forth by the defendant in its counterclaim filed in a suit by this plaintiff, The Atlantic Refining Company v. United States, C-978, decided December 2, 1929, in which this court awarded the defendant judgment for $74,585.90.

Judgment in plaintiff’s favor for $20,073.86 will be entered. It is so ordered.