Reconstruction Finance Corporation v. JG Menihan Corp., 312 U.S. 81 (1941)
Reconstruction Finance Corporation v. JG Menihan Corp., 312 U.S. 81 (1941)
81
61 S.Ct. 485
85 L.Ed. 595
Messrs. Robert H. Jackson, Atty. Gen., and Clifford J. Durr, for petitioner.
Mr. Arthur E. Sutherland, Jr., of Rochester, N.Y., for respondents.
Mr. Chief Justice HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court.
has wide powers and conducts financial operations on a vast scale. While it acts
as a governmental agency in performing its functions (see Pittman v. Home
Owners' Loan Corporation, 308 U.S. 21, 32, 33, 60 S.Ct. 15, 17, 18, 84 L.Ed.
11, 124 A.L.R. 1263), still its transactions are akin to those of private
enterprises and the mere fact that it is an agency of the government does not
extend to it the immunity of the sovereign. Sloan Shipyards v. United States
Fleet Corporation, 258 U.S. 549, 566, 567, 42 S.Ct. 386, 388, 66 L.Ed. 762.
Congress has expressly provided that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
shall have power 'to sue and be sued, to complain and to defend, in any court of
competent jurisdiction, State or Federal'. There is nothing in the statutes
governing its transactions which suggests any intention of Congress that in
suing and being sued the Corporation should not be subject to the ordinary
incident of unsuccessful litigation in being liable for the costs which might
properly be awarded against a private party in a similar case.
4
Affirmed.
Mr. Justice BLACK took no part in the consideration and decision of this case.