CW Government Travel, Inc. v. United States

63 Fed. Cl. 459, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 3, 2005 WL 66901
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJanuary 12, 2005
DocketNo. 03-1274 C
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 63 Fed. Cl. 459 (CW Government Travel, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
CW Government Travel, Inc. v. United States, 63 Fed. Cl. 459, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 3, 2005 WL 66901 (uscfc 2005).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

GEORGE W. MILLER, Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the motion of plaintiff, CW Government Travel, Inc. (“Carlson” or “CWGT”), for partial reconsideration of the Court’s Opinion and Order dated August 3, 2004. Defendant and defendant-intervenor filed oppositions to plaintiff’s motion for partial reconsideration and plaintiff filed a reply brief in support of its motion. Oral argument was held on October 14, 2004. For the reasons set forth below, plaintiff’s motion for partial reconsideration is DENIED.

BACKGROUND

The facts of this case are set forth in detail in the Court’s August 3 Opinion and Order. CW Gov’t Travel, Inc. v. United States, 61 Fed.Cl. 559 (2004). The Court will repeat some, but not all of those facts here. This case involves several contracts for government travel services. Counts I and II of plaintiff’s amended complaint, though not explicitly styled as such, constituted a bid protest of contract number DAMT01-98-D-1005 (“DTS DTR-6 contract”)1 that was being performed by Northrop Grumman. Count I of the amended complaint alleged that the Government violated the Competition in Contracting Act, 41 U.S.C. § 253(a) (2000) (“CICA”), when it modified the DTS DTR-6 contract, because the modifications constituted cardinal changes such that the new work under the DTS DTR-6 contract was required by law to be competed. In Count II of the amended complaint, plaintiff sought a permanent injunction, requesting that the Court enjoin Northrop Grumman’s performance of the DTS DTR-6 contract and require the United States Army Contracting Agency, Information Technology, E-Commerce and Commercial Contracting Center (“ITEC-4”) to issue a new solicitation for the work encompassed in the out-of-scope modifications. Count III of plaintiff’s amended complaint was a performance dispute, brought under the Contract Disputes Act (“CDA”), 41 U.S.C. §§ 601-612 (2000), relating to two contracts between Carlson and the Army for traditional travel services. Id. at 563.

The Court denied defendant’s motion to dismiss Count III of the complaint. Counts I and II encompassed three alleged cardinal changes to the contract: (1) addition of traditional travel services; (2) modification of the requirements for the Common User Interface (“CUI”); and (3) payment restructure. On summary judgment, the Court found that the addition of traditional travel services constituted a cardinal change to the DTS DTR-6 contract in violation of CICA. Id. at 574. The Court considered and weighed the relevant factors and determined that plaintiff was entitled to injunctive relief. Accordingly, the Court ordered the agency to compete the traditional travel services portion of the contract. Id. at 576.

The Court determined, however, that the record was insufficient regarding whether Carlson had standing to challenge the failure to re-compete the contract after the alleged changes to the CUI and payment restructure. CW Gov’t Travel, 61 Fed.Cl. at 570-71. [462]*462The Court further found that there were genuine issues of material fact whether the alleged changes to the CUI and payment restructure constituted cardinal changes, such that the contract would have been required to be re-competed. Id. at 576-77. The Court, nonetheless, determined that even if Carlson had standing and could prove that there was a cardinal change, Carlson was not entitled to the injunctive relief it sought. Id. at 579. Accordingly, the Court entered summary judgment on Count II (injunctive relief) in favor of the Government and Northrop Grumman.

Following the Court’s decision, the parties, on August 12, 2004, filed a stipulation of dismissal regarding Count III. By Order dated October 14, 2004, the Court adopted defendant’s revised proposed schedule for re-competing the traditional travel services portion of the DTS DTR-6 contract. The DTS DTR-6 task order was to be awarded on or about October 26, 2004, with performance pursuant to the new task order to commence and performance of traditional travel services pursuant to the DTS DTR-6 contract to terminate, on or about November 22, 2004. To the knowledge of the Court, those events were completed on schedule.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard for Motion for Reconsideration

Motions for reconsideration are governed by United States Court of Federal Claims Rule (“RCFC”) 59, and are granted at the sole discretion of the court-not as a matter of right. See Yuba Natural Res., Inc. v. United States, 904 F.2d 1577, 1583 (Fed.Cir.1990); Fru-Con Constr. Corp. v. United States, 44 Fed.Cl. 298, 300 (1999), aff'd, 250 F.3d 762 (Fed.Cir.2000). A showing of extraordinary circumstances is necessary before a party may prevail on its motion for reconsideration. Fru-Con Constr., 44 Fed.Cl. at 300. “This showing, under RCFC 59, must be based upon manifest error of law, or mistake of fact, and is not intended to give an unhappy litigant an additional chance to sway the court.” Id. (internal citations omitted). In other words, a motion for reconsideration is improper when based upon “the sole ground that one side or the other is dissatisfied with the conclusions reached by the court, otherwise a losing party would generally, if not always, try his case a second time, and litigation would be unnecessarily prolonged with no more satisfactory results, as there would still be a losing party in the end.” Roche v. District of Columbia, 18 Ct.Cl. 289, 290, 1800 WL 1263 (1883). “Because of a strong public policy disfavoring reconsideration based upon facts already in the record at the time of the original conclusion, a party’s motion for reconsideration must be premised upon much more than a mere re-argument of positions already advanced before the court.” Anchor Sav. Bank, FSB v. United States, 63 Fed.Cl. 6, 7 (2004) (citing Fru-Con Constr., 44 Fed.Cl. at 301).

II. Issuance of an Injunction is Within the Court’s Sound Discretion

Carlson first contends that “in addressing a violation of CICA, the Court is not free to decline to enforce the statutes. Regardless of whether Carlson is entitled to all of the equitable relief sought, the Court is not permitted to enter judgment in favor of the Government in the face of a violation of CICA. Congress has circumscribed the Court’s tradition discretion in equity. Under the Administrative Procedure Act (‘APA’), the Court must declare unlawful and set aside action that violates CICA.” Mem. in Supp. of Pl.’s Mot. for Recons, at 1. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has considered and rejected this very argument. PGBA, LLC. v. United States, 389 F.3d 1219 (Fed.Cir.2004).

The Court has jurisdiction over Carlson’s bid protest pursuant to the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491(b) (2000), which was enacted as part of the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996 (“ADRA”), Pub.L. No. 104-320,100 Stat. 3879. Section 1491(b) provides in relevant part:

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Bluebook (online)
63 Fed. Cl. 459, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 3, 2005 WL 66901, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cw-government-travel-inc-v-united-states-uscfc-2005.