Defense Supplies Corp. et al. v. Lawrence Warehouse Co. et al. (336 U.S. 631)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 18, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 336 U.S. 631 · 69 S. Ct. 762
- Decided
- April 18, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1948
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Murphy
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Murphy delivered the opinion of the Court. We are asked to assess the effect of the Defense Supplies Corporation’s dissolution on an action to which it was a party at the time of dissolution. Petitioners are the Defense Supplies Corporation and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Both are arms of the United States Government. Defense Supplies Corporation brought action against respondents in the District Court for the Northern District of California, in February, 1944, alleging respondents’ negligent destruction of automobile tires owned by Defense Supplies and stored by respondents. Respondents denied their negligence. The District Judge tried the cause without a jury in February, 1945. He ordered the case submitted on July 16, 1945, and in January, 1946, found negligence and ordered judgment for Defense Supplies Corporation in the amount of $41,975.15 and costs, 67 F. Supp. 16; engrossed findings and final judgment were entered in April, 1946. Respondents filed notice of appeal on June 14, 1946; the appeal was argued in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in October, 1947, and in December the court affirmed the judgment below. 164 F. 2d 773. In January, 1948, rehearing was denied. Then respondents discovered that Defense Supplies Corporation “did not exist.” Congress had dissolved the theretofore successful litigant as of July 1, 1945, by the Joint…
Excerpt of a 15,375-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.