Court Opinion

ID: 6921370
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-23 23:02:58.336098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:06:48.570785
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge, with whom WATERMAN, Circuit Judge, joins
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
The libelants here necessarily assume the task of showing that the parties to these uniform ship charters fully intended by their agreements to change the normal time when a claim for overpayment accrues — i. e., at the time of overpayment — to a later date in the remote and indefinite future. In his opinion Judge Smith gives a masterly demonstration of what wholly unusual contracts these would be for any government official to make under the circumstances, and of how inadequate the language of the famous Clause 13 is to warn the contractors of what they were (on this interpretation) so strangely doing. The disputes had already arisen before the contracts were made, and they called for large charter hire payments to be made to the government almost immediately. That settlement of these already ripe disputes was to be postponed until all the claims the parties might eventually think of were not only presented, but finally adjusted, would have the government holding the bag at high interest rates for many years or until the claimants were completely satisfied. Actually nearly a decade was consumed before action was instituted, and the matter is not yet settled after another third of a decade of litigation. Such a prolonging of the adjustment of government claims, in an area where the statutes show time to be of the essence, would need to be clearly suggested by contract language and background before it could be accepted. But that quite clearly is not the case here; neither the language nor the inconclusive background brings this out; nor, notwithstanding the suggestion of remand and further hearing first conceived by the former panel, are we given any intimation of any other material which may change the obvious conclusion. For the very inconclusive nature of all this supports Judge Smith’s demonstration that the unusual interpretation urged by libelants cannot be considered a reasonable one.
But even though Judge Smith’s conclusion is negatively complete, we find difficulty in his affirmative holding finding a distinction between claims for overpayment of additional charter hire based on alleged illegality and those based on interpretation of the contracts with respect to allowances to be made for such matters as capital employed, overhead expenses, agency fees, and so on. This distinction is not illogical if the parties had chosen to make it. We discover no basis for it, however, in what they did or said. And acceptance of it weakens the grounds for what we believe to be the more reasonable over-all construction of Clause 13, viewed not in isolation as our brothers tend to do, but as a natural, though not overriding, part of this many paragraphed document. Thus viewed we find the reference to “the completion of each final audit by the Owner” (italics added) to concern the additional profits made in each “calendar year” and to be accounted for yearly, as the first part of Clause 13 makes clear. (This part is not quoted in the opinion herewith, but does appear at 2 Cir., 265 F.2d 145, note 3, as well as the dissent herewith.) Hence the proviso of Clause 13 here in issue is a natural corollary of the charge thus levied for additional charter hire on the net profits shown at the end of each calendar year; additionally it avoids the obvious difficulties found in the other interpretations advanced. So after further careful study we reaffirm the interpretation we previously made, as set forth in our opinion at 2 Cir., 265 F.2d *611150-152, from which we now quote salient portions:
“Turning now to Clause 13 itself —quoted in full in the opinion — it should be noticed that it is not a provision for claim adjustment; nor does it in any way suggest that it was meant to deal with the processing of claims for refund. Clearly it is what it is labeled as being, namely, a provision for ‘Additional Charter Hire.’ It follows naturally after Clause 12, covering ‘Basic Charter Hire,’ and in its main section provides a scale for such additional hire based on cumulative net voyage profits of the charter in any calendar year. The emphasis on yearly accountings is obvious. The particular provisions here in issue come at the end and deal with preliminary and final payments of such additional charter hire, based on the scale stated. So a method is provided whereby the government can ask and receive preliminary payments as the money is earned, and the ‘final audits’ clearly refer to the yearly settlements thus made necessary. Quite simply they are necessary because the progressive rate of additional hire depends on the amount of cumulative profits for the year. They just do not fit the concept of an ultimate and probably long delayed settlement of all disputes which might conceivably arise under any of the manifold provisions of these extensive charters. Significantly a much later charter provision does look to such possibility, thereby affording a persuasive contrast. For Clause 28 deals with ‘Accounting, Report and Supervision’ and requires the keeping of books, the filing of financial statements, and the like, covering all transactions, while it also authorizes the auditing of all books and the maintenance of checks and controls of expenditures and revenues in connection with the operation of any of the chartered vessels. [But it contains no provision postponing the accrual of claims.]
“In the final paragraph of Clause 13 the preliminary statements therein referred to are correlated with the final audit. This places a well-nigh insuperable obstacle in the way of the interpretation claimed by libelants. For the ‘adjustment’ visualized is to be had ‘either at the time of the rendition of preliminary statements or upon the completion of each final audit by the Owner’; the idea is carried further thus, ‘at which times such payments will be made to the Owner as such preliminary statements or final audit may show to be due, or such overpayments refunded to the Charterer as may be required.’ Each final audit therefore serves a function of settling the payments due on each calendar year’s profits. Thus it fits properly with the rest of the clause. It cannot be made to mean some final settlement of all and sundry differences a decade or more hence when at length both parties are prepared to have a balance struck. Thus the government’s brief is correct in saying: ‘Thus the charterers’ right to file a claim for adjustment and refund of an overpayment of additional hire and to bring immediate suit if refund was not made is precisely the same at the time of a charterer’s rendition of its preliminary accountings and at the time of the owner’s final audit.’
“This natural construction is supported by various Maritime Administration regulations which (1) require the charterer at the end of each calendar month to pay 90 per cent of the additional charter hire then indicated to be due, 46 CFR 299.31 (k) (1); (2) provide that such payments are preliminary and subject to adjustment upon completion of audit by the government covering the period involved (the calendar year), id.; (3) provide that tender of the monthly payments and their *612acceptance do not prejudice rights under the charter or otherwise, id.; (4) require remittance of monthly payments to be accompanied by a preliminary statement, 46 CFR 299.31(k) (2); (5) provide that if this statement indicates that 90 per cent of the cumulative total for the expired portions of the periods involved (calendar year) is less than the total of payments theretofore made for the period, the charterer may apply for a refund, 46 CFR 299.31 (k) (5); and (6) require each charterer to submit a separate final accounting of additional charter hire for each annual or over-all accounting period [which under 46 CFR 299.37-1 (h) and (i) is defined as a calendar year or a period less than a calendar year, 46 CFR 299.37-2(b)]. Hence, simply put, Clause 13, read with the regulations, provides that the charterers must make monthly payments on account of the additional charter hire which are preliminary because only upon the rendition of preliminary statements or upon final audit for the year will the parties know whether or not the amounts of the monthly payments were correct.
“Neither in wording nor in practical operability, however, is the Clause appropriate for the adjustment of the type of ‘overpayment’ here involved. For the charterers knew that as they read the law the sums here claimed were not correct even when remitted. So there is no suggestion anywhere in the contract that the earlier language in Clause 13 bears on these ‘overpayments’ in any way. Nor is there any suggestion in Clause 13 or in the regulations that the preliminary payments are tentative because the charterers believed the Clause to be illegal or that the parties agreed to put off a judicial determination of the legality of the rates. It is a strange contract which would preclude suit by the charterers to reform the contract or to recover the specific monthly ‘overpayments’ if actually illegal. But, as the opinion herewith makes clear, libelants to succeed must rely on such an interpretation, viz., that the phrase ‘each final audit’ can mean only some type of closing-out accounting which ultimately and finally terminates all relations between the charterers and the United States. I submit with all deference that the mere statement of the argument betrays its weakness; without fairly conclusive support somewhere for such a reading there is no ‘prima facie showing of jurisdiction.’ Surely the parties did not intend an agreement to require the deposits of huge sums of money for an indefinite time pending determination of the legality of the contract rates. For quite clearly the period of limitation can start only when the parties agree and are content that they have eventually obtained an ultimate closing-out accounting. Ironically enough, since even late deposits are to be included, there is nothing to prevent the charterers from continuing to make the government a good and safe depositary, paying better than market rates of interest, for their excess funds. Hence for my part I cannot accept this as permissible interpretation against respondent’s persuasive showing (wholly consistent with both the charters and the regulations) that ‘each final audit’ means an audit of the charterers’ yearly profits.”
Therefore we concur in the decision of Judge Smith, except for his direction in the case of eight of the libels that the orders be reversed and the actions be remanded for further hearing; as to these also, we vote to affirm the orders of dismissal. It appears, however, that our brethren are in disagreement as to the extent of the remand thus ordered; upon this limited issue we agree with Judge Smith that the remand should not be more extensive than he directs.