Reporter's Statement of the Case possession and remove any or all of said materials, provided that such entry and removal shall be made in such manner as to interfere as little as practicable with the contractor's work. The contractor further agrees, upon the written request of the Fleet Corporation, to deliver f. o. b. cars the contractor's plant all or any part of said property not theretofore delivered to or on the order of the Fleet Corporation as may be designated by the Fleet Corporation and in accordance with such shipping instructions as are given by the Fleet Corporation to the contractor. The cost of any direct labor of the contractor employed in loading said materials on cars shall be reimbursed to the contractor by the Fleet Corporation. The contractor represents and warrants that all the materials listed in "Exhibit A," and not heretofore delivered to or on the order of the Fleet Corporation, are on hand at its plant in as good condition as when received by the contractor, such deterioration, if any, as may occur without fault of the contractor excepted, and agrees to deliver the same to the Fleet Corporation, or to pay the Fleet Corporation for such materials as can not be delivered, in accordance with the prices mentioned in "Exhibit A." The contractor is authorized and permitted to use all or any part of said materials for other work, and in that event shall pay the Fleet Corporation for such materials as may be used, in accordance with the prices stated in "Exhibit A." 5. The Fleet Corporation agrees to indemnify and save the contractor harmless against any loss or expense in connection with any suit which may be brought against the contractor by the Ocean Steamship Company under the said contracts for the construction of the said vessels, or either of them, or arising out of the payments made by the Ocean Steamship Company to the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation, as first payments under said contracts for the construction of hull No. 450 and hull No. 451, provided that the contractor give to the Fleet Corporation prompt notice of such suit or suits and obey any and all reasonable instructions of the Fleet Corporation in relation thereto. The Fleet Corporation will pay any judgments rendered in a court of last resort against the contractor by reason of such suit or suits. In witness whereof the parties hereto have caused this agreement to be signed by their respective officers thereto duly authorized, and their respective common or corporate 109770-28-C C-VOL. 64—— -8 Reporter's Statement of the Case seals to be hereunto affirmed, duly attested, on the date above stated. BETHLEHEM SHIPBUILDING CORPORATION (LTD.), By J. W. PoWELL, Vice President. [CORPORATE SEAL.] Attest: R. E. McMATH, Secretary. UNITED STATES SHIPPING BOARD By J. L. ACKERSON, Vice President. [CORPORATE SEAL.] Attest: JAS. V. WATSON, Assistant Secretary. Approved: Vice Chairman Cancellation, Claims, and Contracts Board. Approved: G. H. BONSALL, Jr., Assistant to Vice President in charge of Claims. Approved as to form date: GLENN D. PETERS, Assistant Counsel. ALFRED W. HAYWARD, Assistant General Counsel. Approved: JAMES TALBERT, Member General C. C. C. Board. The above contract provides that Bethlehem Corporation should pay over to Fleet Corporation the net amount of $15,735.39. The payment of said net balance was made by Bethlehem Corporation, and the material left on hand from the construction of hulls 450 and 451 was transferred to the Fleet Corporation. XI. On October 12, 1917, all existing cargo ships of not less than 2,500 tons dead weight and passenger steamers of not less than 2,500 gross tons were commandeered by the Shipping Board. XII. Plaintiff paid to Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation on December 10, 1915, $85,909 on account of hull 450, and on January 24, 1916, $10,000 on account of hull 451, a total of $95,909. Plaintiff had also incurred indirect and incidental expenses in connection with said vessels prior to August 3, 1917, to the amount of $3,568.75. Reporter's Statement of the Case The plaintiff was never in default of its part of the requirements of the contracts and was able at all times to carry out its part of said contracts. XIII. Plaintiff filed its claim with the Fleet Corporation for the payment of just compensation for what it stated was the requisition of its two hulls 450 and 451 which were under construction in the shipyard of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation on August 3, 1917, and the contracts therefor. In March, 1920, the Emergency Fleet Corporation offered to pay to plaintiff as just compensation for the property so taken the sum of $109,068.64. Said award being unsatisfactory, plaintiff, as provided by the act of June 15, 1917, elected to accept 75% of the said award and to sue the United States to recover such further sum as added to said 75% would make up such amount as would be just compen sation. In May, 1920, plaintiff executed a release as shown in Exhibit "J" attached to plaintiff's petition, and the Fleet Corporation paid to plaintiff on the 17th day of August, 1920, the sum of $81,801.48, which was 75% of its award of $109,068.64. XIV. These two vessels were designed as combination freight and passenger ships for the coast wise trade in which. the plaintiff was engaged, and on account of their special type were not bought and sold on the market like cargo ships, and there was on August 3, 1917, no generally recognized market for these combination freight and passenger vessels as there was for cargo ships. There was not on August 3, 1917, a market value for contracts for the type of ships which the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation had contracted to build for the plaintiff. XV. Just compensation to the plaintiff for the expropriation by the United States of its two contracts, and which will place it in as good a position pecuniarily as it would have been if its contracts had not been taken, is. the sum of $250,000 as of August 3, 1917, with interest thereon at the rate of six per centum per annum from August 3, 1917, to August 17, 1920, which interest amounts to the sum of $45,583, on which later date the United States paid to the Opinion of the Court plaintiff the sum of $81,801.48, leaving a balance due to the plaintiff on August 17, 1920, of $213,781.52, to which the plaintiff is entitled with interest thereon from August 17, 1920, to February 14, 1927, the date of this judgment, and which amounts in all to the sum of $291,373.57. In addition to the principal sum mentioned in Finding XV, and interest thereon to date of judgment, the court allowed, as part of just compensation, interest on the principal sum from date of judgment until paid. HAY, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court : This is a suit brought by the plaintiff, the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah, for the sum of $3,145,342.63, which it claims is the just compensation due it for the expropriation of two contracts by the United States. These contracts were entered into by the plaintiff with the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation for the construction of two ships. The first contract was entered into by the aforesaid parties on December 1, 1915, and by its terms the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation was to construct and deliver to the plaintiff on or before February 1, 1918, one combined cargo and passenger ship of 4,500 dead-weight tonnage for the price and sum of $945,000. The plaintiff was to pay the shipbuilder the sum of $85,909 at the time the contract was signed, and the balance of the money to be paid as the construction of the ship progressed; the sum of $85,909 when the keel was laid, and so on, all of which is set out in full in Finding II and is found in the contract which appears as Exhibit A to plaintiff's petition. On December 31, 1915, the same parties entered into another contract whereby the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation agreed to build for the plaintiff one steel passenger and cargo steamship of 4,500 dead-weight tonnage for the price of $935,000; $10,000 whereof was to be paid at the time of signing the contract, and the balance in 10 installments of $92,500, payable as the work progressed; the ship was to be delivered to the plaintiff in New York harbor 31 months after the contract was signed, which would have made the date of delivery April 31, 1918. The contract is in Opinion of the Court all other respects precisely similar in its terms to the other contract above referred to. The plaintiff paid to the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation the sum of $85,909 on its first contract, and the sum of $10,000 on its second contract, and also expended the sum of $3.568.75 for incidental expenses in connection with said ships. The plaintiff did not make any payment on either contract after the payments above referred to for the reason that the shipbuilder made no progress in the construction of the said vessels, or none at least which required payment by the plaintiff, as under neither contract had the keels of the vessels been laid on August 3, 1917. By virtue of the act of Congress of June 15, 1917, the President of the United States on July 11, 1917, empowered the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation to exercise the power vested in him by said act in so far as it was applicable to the requisitioning of vessels in process of construction or of contracts for the construction of such vessels and the completion thereof, and the requisitioning of materials for such construction. And on August 3, 1917, the said United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation expropriated the contracts of the plaintiff which it had with the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation. At the time of said expropriation the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation had not laid the keels of either one of the vessels which it had contracted to build for the plaintiff. The said corporation had purchased some materials for the construction of said vessels, and had contracted for other materials. The shipbuilding corporation had set aside two of its slips for these vessels, had completed the designs, and the fabrication of some of the steel was under way. The ship corporation had expended for material purchased for these two hulls the sum of $116.239.10, and the amount of material contracted for by the shipbuilder and which it was obligated to take for said two hulls was $384,300; the value of the material to be ordered to complete the hulls was $265,700. The plaintiff, on August 3, 1917, had not paid for any of these materials, and under the contract was not obliged to make any payment for materials until the keels of the |