Court Opinion

ID: 9451619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:20:43.255374+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:49.364046
License: Public Domain

HARRY PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The memorandum opinion of the district judge contains the following language :
“The Miller Act affords the use-plaintiff security in the performance of the government contract involved herein, and the surety’s liability herein is coextensive with that of its principal. United States [for Benefit and on Behalf of Sherman] v. Carter (1957), 353 U.S. 210, 77 S.Ct. 793,1 L.Ed. (2d) 776, 782 (headnote 1). The principal being liable to the use-plaintiff, the surety is also liable, Stovall v. Banks (1870), [10 Wall. 583] 77 U.S. 583, 19 L.Ed. 1036, 1038, and the surety cannot escape liability because of the statute of limitations.”
I respectfully dissent upon the basis of this reasoning. As said by the Supreme Court with respect to the forerunner to the Miller Act, speaking through Mr. Justice Brandeis in Illinois Surety Co. v. John Davis Co., 244 U.S. 376, 380, 37 S.Ct. 614, 616, 61 L.Ed. 1206: “Technical rules otherwise protecting sureties from liability have never been applied in proceedings under this statute.”
I do not believe that the action against the surety is barred by the one-year statute of limitations, especially under the record in this case where no contention is made that the surety did not have actual notice of the filing of the original action against the principal.
In my opinion, Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure does not pre-*525dude the amendment of the complaint so as to make the surety a party defendant. The philosophy underlying the federal rules was well expressed by the Supreme Court in Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 48, 78 S.Ct. 99, 103, 2 L.Ed.2d 80:
“The Federal Rules reject the approach that pleading is a game of skill in which one misstep by counsel may be decisive to the outcome and accept the principle that the purpose of pleading is to facilitate a proper decision on the merits.”
It would seem that any doubt as to interpretation of Rule 15 on this question in future cases will be removed by the recent amendment to Rule 15 (c) which is scheduled to become effective July 1, 1966.
I would affirm.