United States ex rel. Air Control Technologies, Inc. v. Pre Con Industries, Inc.

The Miller Act requires that a general contractor on a federal construction project furnish a payment bond “for the protection of all persons supplying labor and material” on the project. 40 U.S.C. *1175 § 3131 (b)(2). Any person who has supplied labor or material on the project may bring a civil action on the payment bond against the general contractor, see 40 U.S.C. § 3133 (b)(1), but the action “must be brought no later than one year after the day on which the last of the labor was performed or material was supplied by the person bringing the action,” 40 U.S.C. § 3133 (b)(4).

Air Control Technologies brought this suit under the Miller Act against Pre Con Industries and First National Insurance Company of America. Relying on United States ex rel. Celanese Coatings Co. v. Gullard, 504 F.2d 466 (9th Cir.1974), where this court held that the Miller Act’s one-year statute of limitations is a jurisdictional requirement, the district court dismissed Air Control Technologies’s complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We overrule Celanese Coatings because it is clearly irreconcilable with intervening higher authority, vacate the district court’s dismissal of Air…