United States Ex Rel. Varco Pruden Buildings v. Reid & Gary Strickland Co.

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

This appeal resolves several claims for attorneys’ fees and interest stemming from the construction of an Air Force hangar in New Mexico. The ultimate resolution of the damage claims is not before us. We must decide whether to apply the law of Texas or the law of New Mexico and whether the claims for attorneys’ fees are efforts to recover attorneys’ fees as part of a Miller Act claim or state law claims supplemental to a Miller Act claim.

I

In April 1993, Reid & Gary Strickland Company, a general contractor, submitted to the United States Corps of…