Source: http://openjurist.org/print/24801
Timestamp: 2015-12-02 01:36:05
Document Index: 129386828

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 270', '§ 270', '§ 270', '§ 270', '§ 2', '§ 270']

316 US 23 United States Noland Co v. Irwin
Home > 316 US 23 United States Noland Co v. Irwin
Petitioner furnished to a sub-contractor materials worth $23,649.35. Of this sum it was paid $11,146.80, leaving due $12,502.55 with interest. When payment of this amount was refused, petitioner brought this suit on the bond in the name of the United States. Respondents moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that the construction of the library building at Howard University was not a 'public work', within the meaning of the Miller Act. The District Court overruled the motion to dismiss. The Court of Appeals allowed a special appeal and reversed, on the authority of its own earlier decision in Maiatico Construction Co. v. United States, 65 App.D.C. 62, 79 F.2d 418. The case is here on certiorari.
The question before us therefore is whether the construction of the library was a 'public work' as that term is used in the Miller Act. We think that it is, that the Assistant Secretary of the Interior was consequently authorized to require respondents to post a bond securing materialmen, and that petitioner is entitled to sue on the bond in the name of the United States.
No aid in ascertaining the meaning of 'public works' is to be found in the Miller Act itself. But in the National Industrial Recovery Act, passed two years before the Miller Act, Congress defined it as including 'any projects of the character heretofore constructed or carried on either directly by public authority or with public aid to serve the interests of the general public.' The library at Howard University was not only a project 'of the character heretofore constructed or carried on * * * with public aid'; it had been directly and specifically authorized by Congress in 1931 and money had actually been appropriated for it. And it requires no discussion that Howard University, established by the authority of Congress 'for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences,'5 serves 'the interests of the general public.'
In Maiatico Construction Co. v. United States, supra, upon which the Court of Appeals principally relied in reaching an opposite conclusion, the same court had construed a different statute, the Heard Act of August 13, 1894.6 That Act required that 'any person or persons entering into a formal contract with the United States for the construction of any public building, or the prosecution and completion of any public work, or for repairs upon any public building or public work, shall be required' to post a bond for the security of both the United States and the suppliers of labor and materials. It permitted the laborers and material men to enforce their claims by intervening in any suit by the United States on the bond. The plaintiffs in the Maiatico case supplied labor and materials in the construction of three dormitory buildings at Howard University, the contract for which had been let to the defendant construction company by the United States in November, 1930. The Court of Appeals decided that the plaintiffs could not recover on the defendant's bond because the dormitories were not 'public buildings' and their construction was not a 'public work.' It based this conclusion on the theory that 'public buildings' or 'public works', within the meaning of the Heard Act, included only buildings which belonged to the United States. Since Howard University is a private institution and since it held title to the dormitories, recovery on the bond was denied to the suppliers of materials and labor.7
Whatever may have been the validity of this narrow formula when applied to the Heard Act, we cannot approve its application to this suit under the Miller Act. In the first place, the whole concept of 'public works' has been considerably altered since the enactment of the Heard Act in 1894 and particularly within the last dozen years, and the question of title to the buildings or improvements or to the land on which they are situated is no longer of primary significance.8 But we are not left to such vague guidance. Two and a half years after the execution of the contract involved in the Maiatico case, Congress, in the National Industrial Recovery Act, specifically defined 'public works' as including 'any projects of the character heretofore cnstructed or carried on either directly by public authority or with public aid to serve the interests of the general public.' The Miller Act was passed two years later for the purpose of enlarging the protection which the Heard Act had afforded to laborers and materialmen by facilitating the procedure for enforcing their claims against the contractor. During the hearings on the several bills from which the Miller Act evolved, Congressman Duffy, ofOhio, the author of one of the bills and a member of the sub-committee that drafted the Act, declared without dissent by any Representative: 'If this bill were passed by this Congress it would certainly be applicable to the public works program and that is the reason for its importance.'9
We have no doubt that the Miller Act was intended to apply to the 'public works' authorized by the Administrator under the National Industrial Recovery Act. The National Industrial Recovery Act did not leave to speculation the nature of the 'public works' that Congress envisaged. Its language was not technical but plain and specific. Expressly included were 'projects of the character heretofore constructed or carried on * * * with public aid to serve the interests of the general public.' Beyond question the library at Howard University was such a project.
49 Stat. 793, U.S.C., Title 40, §§ 270a—270d, 40 U.S.C.A. §§ 270a—270d:
'Sec. 1 (§ 270a). (a) Before any contract, exceeding $2,000 in amount, for the construction, alteration, or repair of any public building or public work of the United States is awarded to any person, such person shall furnish to the United States the following bonds, which shall become
binding upon the award of the contract to such person, who is hereinafter designated as 'contractor':
'(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the authority of any contracting officer to require a performance bond or other security in addition to those, or in cases other than the cases specified in subsection (a) of this section. * * *
'Sec. 2 (§ 270b). (a) Every person who has furnished labor or material in the prosecution of the work provided for in such contract, in respect of
which a payment bond is furnished under this Act (section 270a of this title) and who has not been paid in full therefor before the expiration of a period of ninety days after the day on which the last of the labor was done or performed by him or material was furnished or supplied by him for which such claim is made, 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 execution and judgment for the sum or sums justly due him: Provided, however, That any person having direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor but no contractual relationship express or implied with the contractor furnishing said payment bond shall have a right of action upon the said payment bond upon giving written notice to said contractor within ninety days from the date on which such person did or performed the last of the labor or furnished or supplied the last of the material for which such claim is made, stating with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the party to whom the material was furnished or supplied or for whom the labor was done or performed. Such notice shall be served by mailing the same by registered mail, postage prepaid, in an envelop addressed to the contractor at any place he maintains an office or conducts his business, or his residence, or in any manner in which the United States marshal of the district in which the public improvement is situated is authorized by law to serve summons.
'* * *.'ses
Bulletin No. 51 of Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, 'Information Relating to the Negotiation and Administration of Contracts for Federal Projects under Title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act' (Revised, Oct. 1, 1935). Part I, § 2(a): 'The forms required for general use in connection with construction and repair projects are as follows: . . . U.S. Government Standard Form of Payment Bond No. 25A for the protection of labor and materialmen, Pursuant to Public Act. No. 321, Seventy-fourth Congress, approved August 24, 1935 (The Miller Act).'
28 Stat. 278, as amended by the Act of Feb. 24, 1905, 33 Stat. 811 and the Act of March 3, 1911, 36 Stat. 1167, 40 U.S.C.A. § 270.
This emphasis upon title to the building or project or to the land on which it is situated finds support, as far as the Heard Act is concerned, in Title Guaranty & Trust Co. v. Crane Co., 219 U.S. 24, 31 S.Ct. 140, 55 L.Ed. 72; 23 Op.Atty.Gen. 174.
See Peterson v. United States, 6 Cir., 119 F.2d 145, at pages 147, 148.
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