Bromley Contracting Co. v. United States

34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,515, 15 Cl. Ct. 100, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 110, 1988 WL 62112
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJune 20, 1988
DocketNo. 528-84C
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,515 (Bromley Contracting Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bromley Contracting Co. v. United States, 34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,515, 15 Cl. Ct. 100, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 110, 1988 WL 62112 (cc 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

REGINALD W. GIBSON, Judge:

On October 17, 1984, Bromley Contracting Co., Inc. (Bromley or plaintiff) filed a complaint in this court seeking damages in — the sum of $2,282,641.05 allegedly due it pursuant to 31 miscellaneous requests for change orders which it filed; the sum of $150,000 for overhead and expenses claimed incurred due to negotiations with and preparation of presentations to defendant; and the sum of $273,689.32 for interest expenses incurred on loans taken out by plaintiff to finance performance of the extra work represented by the above-mentioned change orders.

Now, before the court, Bromley moves for partial summary judgment seeking to establish monetary entitlement1 on only 14 of the 232 remaining claims for expenses arising from the claimed performance of extra work under a building restoration contract (contract No. 031-78-511) with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD or defendant). Plaintiff has filed its action in this court after submitting duly certified claim(s) to the contracting officer and following its failure to receive a final decision from said contracting officer under the direct access provisions of the Contract Disputes Act of 1978, 41 U.S.C. §§ 609 and 605(c)(5) (1987). Defendant opposes plaintiffs partial motion for summary judgment and points to a plethora of genuine issues of material fact which requires the denial of plaintiff’s motion. Because we agree, in that we have found that plaintiff fails to meet its initial [102]*102burden of demonstrating to the court the absence of genuine issues of material fact and further that defendant successfully raises a host of material and genuine issues of fact as detailed below, plaintiffs motion must be denied with respect to each of the claims averred.

Statement of Facts

Bromley responded to the invitation for bids, issued by HUD on December 16,1977, with the low bid in the amount of $342,832 for the restoration of the brick facade of a 26-story HUD building located in Newark, New Jersey, known as Weequahic Park Plaza. HUD, as a consequence, awarded the lump sum one-year repair contract to Bromley on March 7, 1978. The bid package contained an additional schedule by which the bidders indicated a proposed unit price for each of the 17 types of repair work to be performed under the contract. The schedule, as completed by plaintiff, was styled “Proposed Costs to Renovate Existing Facade — Additional Work.” Plaintiff entered a unit price for each item and was instructed by said schedule that “[a]ll figures should be in-place costs including overhead and profit.” (emphasis added). Bromley submitted the completed proposed cost schedule to HUD along with its lump sum bid on the project. Notwithstanding the lump sum contract, plaintiff anticipated the necessity for extra work under the contract. In fact, the vice-president of Bromley admitted that he expected the need for extra work in some repair items and that he had calculated the price entries on the Cost Proposal to gain a bargaining advantage on extra work required after the contract award.3 Bromley commenced performance under the contract on April 7,1978. Thereafter, on April 24, 1978, HUD held a post-award meeting at which Melvin Bloom represented Brom-ley. In the context of that meeting, defendant’s representative indicated that the Cost Proposal schedule submitted by plaintiff would be used as a basis for pricing additional work that was necessary to the project but not within the specifications. (Id.; see also Defendant’s Memorandum of April 28, 1978, Defendant’s App. I, pp. 29-30.)

In addition to Bromley, HUD also contracted with the consulting and research engineering firm of Wiss, Janney Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE) to serve as HUD’s on-site representative to inspect and monitor plaintiff’s performance for, the duration of the contract. WJE, under its contract, in essence functioned as a conduit for change orders by proposing any putative change orders, which comprised additional work above the contract specifications, to the contracting officer for verbal approval prior to performance. Throughout the performance period of the contract, Bromley had actually received compensation for extra work stemming from 40 change orders generated in this fashion which aggregated approximately $809,160. By this action, plaintiff now seeks the aggregate additional amount of $2,706,330.37 for extra work completed over and above the initial extra work, valued at $809,160, for which it has already been paid.

In his Memorandum for the Record dated July 18, 1979, Contracting Officer Granata indicated that he had discussed with Brom-ley’s representatives, in a meeting held on the same day, that plaintiff had performed work that had been neither inspected by WJE nor approved in advance by the contracting officer. Granata further emphasized that the procedure of prior approval for future extra work (change orders) would have to be followed.

As performance continued until September 1980, plaintiff, allegedly, unilaterally chose to shut down its operation for the winter of 1978 as well as the winter of 1979, for an approximate total period of six months. These winter cessations were not imposed by contract provisions.

HUD has paid Bromley $1,151,992 (i.e., $342,832 for contract work and $809,-160 for extras) for work performed under the contract. On April 29, 1981, plaintiff submitted to the contracting officer its certified claim for a “final equitable adjust[103]*103ment” in the amount of $2,282,641.05.4 These claimed costs were based on extra work allegedly performed by plaintiff and itemized as “Miscellaneous Change Orders Ml thru [sic] M31.” The contracting officer did not issue a final decision regarding any of these 31 claims. However, with respect to said claims, defendant did request an audit from the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development with respect to same. This report dated March 18, 1983, found certain of Bromley’s asserted claimed costs to be “unauthorized; incorrect as to unit price, pay rate, and quantity used; and duplicated or unsupported.” See Defendant’s App. II, pp. 332-338. The audit report further contends that “[n]one of the change orders had been properly submitted or approved.” Said report concluded that most of the claimed costs for alleged extra work were unresolved {i.e., neither clearly eligible or ineligible for reimbursement) and that further documentation was necessary to resolve the eligibility of these costs. Further, in HUD’s Analysis and Reply to Miscellaneous Claims dated May 25, 1984, HUD contends that the extra work for which plaintiff sought additional costs were either already paid for under other change orders, not directed or approved by the contracting officer, not specified in any authorized change order, or not detailed enough to prevent duplication of payments. See Plaintiff’s App. II, pp. 305-310.

Contentions of the Parties

A. Plaintiff

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Bluebook (online)
34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,515, 15 Cl. Ct. 100, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 110, 1988 WL 62112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bromley-contracting-co-v-united-states-cc-1988.