Ray B. Woodbury v. United States

Woodbury’s appeal comes before us upon a judgment of dismissal for lack of jurisdiction, made final pursuant to Rule 54(b) F.R.Civ.P. There is a counterclaim pending. Both parties accept the trial court’s findings as to the facts, embodied in a written opinion, and we take our statement from that opinion.

Woodbury claims the right to recover' •$853,676.82 from the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act ( 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346 (b) and 2671-2680). He was interested in constructing prefabricated housing for naval and civilian personnel stationed at the Kodiak Naval Base in-Alaska. He organized Aluetian Homes,. Inc., which became the sponsor of the-project and acquired the necessary land from the Alaska Housing Authority. The project was to be financed under Title II, Section 203, of the National Housing Act. Under this program, a private mortgage agency takes out individual long-term mortgages on each house in the project. In order to obtain buyers for the mortgages, it was necessary to have a commitment from FHA to insure them. FHA appraised the value of a 344 unit project at $5,904,250 and in April, 1952, issued for a stated period its conditional commitment to insure…