Case Name: UNITED STATES v. DOLLAR et al.
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1952-05-13
Citations: 196 F.2d 551
Docket Number: No. 13130
Parties: UNITED STATES v. DOLLAR et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 196
Pages: 551–554

Head Matter:
UNITED STATES v. DOLLAR et al.
No. 13130.
United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.
May 13, 1952.
Holmes Baldridge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Edward H. Hickey, Donald B. MacGuineas, Attorneys, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., Philip H. Angelí, Sp. Asst, to Atty. Gen., for appellant.
Herman Phleger, Gregory A. Harrison, Moses Lasky and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, all of San Francisco, Cal., for appellees R. Stanley Dollar, Dollar Steamship Line, Robert Dollar Co. and H. M. Lorber.
. Warner W. Gardner, Washington, D. C., Edward G. Chandler, San Francisco, Cal., amici curiae, Ralph K. Davies et al.
Before STEPHENS, HEALY, and POPE, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
HEALY, Circuit Judge.
The United States brought suit in the court below to quiet title to certain shares of stock. The Dollar defendants moved for a dismissal, for judgment on the pleadings, and for summary judgment. Treating the motion solely as one for summary judgment, the court granted it and entered judgment to the effect that title to the shares resides in the Dollar Steamship Line and certain other named defendants. D.C., 100 F.Supp. 881. The United States appeals.
In an earlier suit involving the same shares brought by the Dollar interests against the members of the United States Maritime Commission in the District Court of the District of Columbia Circuit, judgment initially went against the plaintiffs, it being found and determined that the shares had been acquiréd by the Commission outright, not as a pledge as claimed by the plaintiffs. Dollar v. Land, D.C., 82 F.Supp. 919. On appeal the Court of Appeals of the District reached an opposite conclusion and reversed. Dollar v. Land, 87 U.S.App.D.C. 214, 184 F.2d 245.
In ruling on the motion for summary judgment in the present action the trial court appears to have considered the record in the District of Columbia suit for the purpose only of determining whether the issues were the same as here. It does not appear to have made any appraisal of the facts or undertaken independently to determine the issues either of fact or law. In short, as we understand its action, it bypassed decision on the view that a rule of law precludes litigation by the United States. Obviously summary judgment could not properly have been granted on any other theory. The facts and circumstances before the courts in the case decided in the District of Columbia Circuit were such that reasonable minds not only could, but did, draw from them opposing inferences as to the nature and effect of the transaction. This being true the case was not one for summary disposition, but for trial and findings. Detsch & Co. v. American Products Co., 9 Cir., 152 F.2d 473; Stevens v. Howard D. Johnson Co., 4 Cir., 181 F.2d 390, 394; Paul E. Hawkinson Co. v. Dennis, 5 Cir., 166 F.2d 61; Ramsouer v. Midland Valley Ry. Co., 8 Cir., 135 F.2d 101; National Surety Corp. v. Allen-Codell Co., D.C.E.D.Ky., 5 F.R.D. 3; cf. Vale v. Bonnett, D.C.Cir., 191 F.2d 334; Lane Bryant, Inc., v. Maternity Lane, 9 Cir., 173 F.2d 559, 564. Furthermore the United States asserts that it has available and is prepared to offer numerous items of new evidence tending to establish the validity of its claim. These items are set out in the government's brief. Appellees argue that they are not new, or are incompetent, or merely cumulative. However, criticisms of this nature are for the trial court to consider when the evidence is offered.
As we pointed out on an earlier occasion, United States v. Dollar, 9 Cir., 193 F.2d 114, the ground of the judgment below is that by reason of the intervention of government counsel in the defense of the suit against the Maritime Commission, the United States is estopped to relitigate the issues determined in that suit. The decision appears to us at loggerheads with repeated declarations of the Supreme Court in the course of the earlier suit. Land v. Dollar, 330 U.S. 731, 736, 737, 739, 67 S.Ct. 1009, 91 L.Ed. 1209; Land v. Dollar, 341 U.S. 737, 739, 741, 71 S.Ct. 987, 95 L.Ed. 1331. It is for that tribunal, not for us or for the district judge, to determine whether those declarations still hold good.
Apart from the doctrine of collateral estoppel, appellees urge several grounds for affirmance not ruled on by the trial court. We are not disposed to consider the arguments at this juncture.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for plenary trial on the issues of fact and law involved.