E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co. v. United States

54 Fed. Cl. 361, 2002 WL 31505863
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedNovember 8, 2002
DocketNo. 99-101 C
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 54 Fed. Cl. 361 (E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co. 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
E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co. v. United States, 54 Fed. Cl. 361, 2002 WL 31505863 (uscfc 2002).

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

TURNER, Senior Judge.

Plaintiff alleges that defendant breached the terms of Contract No. W-ORD-490 when it refused to reimburse and/or indemnify plaintiff for costs plaintiff incurred pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) at the Morgantown Ordnance Works (MOW), an ordnance plant plaintiff built and operated for the United States during World War II (WWII). The case stands on cross-motions for summary judgment.

I

In 1940, the United States entered into Contract No. W-ORD-490 with plaintiff to construct and operate a chemical production facility in Morgantown, WV for the use of the United States in the war effort. D. Prop. Find. ¶1; Pl. Prop. Find. ¶1. Under the terms of this cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (CPFF contract), DuPont was to acquire the site (Pl.App. at 6), design and construct the plant (Pl.App. at 7), and staff and operate the plant (Pl.App. at 13); the United States would own the plant and everything produced therein (Pl.App. at 6, 31). In Article III-A(8) of the contract, the parties agreed that

It is the understanding of the parties hereto, and the intention of this contract, that all work under this Title III is to be performed at the expense of the Government and that the Government shall hold [DuPont] harmless against any loss, expense (including expense of litigation), or damage (including damage to third persons because of death, bodily injury or property injury or destruction or otherwise) of any kind whatsoever arising out of or in connection with the performance of the work under this Title III.... 1

Pl.App. at 14. Excepted from this liability were losses, expenses, damages or liabilities due to failure of DuPont officers or representatives to exercise good faith or due care. Id.

Another clause of the contract provided that

1. The Contractor shall be reimbursed in the manner hereinafter described for such of its actual expenditures in the performance of the work under this contract, heretofore or hereafter incurred, as may be approved or ratified by the Contracting Officer and as are included in the following items:
k. Losses, expenses, and damages, not compensated by insurance or otherwise (including settlements-made with the written consent of the Contracting Officer), actually sustained by the Contractor in connection with the work and found and certified by the Contracting Officer as not having resulted from personal failure on the part of the corporate officers of the Contractor or of other representatives of the Contractor having supervision and direction of the operation of the plant as a whole, to exercise good faith or that degree of care which they normally exercise in the conduct of the Contractor’s business.2

Pl.App. at 17,19.

In 1946, the United States terminated the contract and entered into a termination supplement to the contract, Supplement No. 22 (Supp.22). D. Prop. Find. ¶11; PI. Prop. Find. 1124. Unfortunately, neither party has been successful in locating a copy of Supp. 22.

In late 1984, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notified DuPont that it was proposing listing MOW [364]*364on the National Priorities List for clean-up pursuant to CERCLA. D. Prop. Find. ¶ 17; Pl. Prop. Find. ¶ 38. In January 1985, the EPA requested that DuPont voluntarily participate in clean-up measures at the MOW site; DuPont declined, citing the United States’ responsibility for clean-up under the contract. D. Prop. Find. ¶¶ 21, 22; Pl. Prop. Find. 1139. On April 20, 1990, DuPont and the EPA entered into a consent order by which DuPont (along with several other potentially responsible parties) agreed to conduct a remedial investigation and feasibility study regarding the site. D. Prop. Find. ¶24; Pl. Prop. Find. ¶41. DuPont paid attorneys and environmental consultants for the investigation and study an amount totaling $1,322,334.83 in costs.3 Pl. Prop. Find. ¶42. Pursuant to the requirements of the Contract Disputes Act (CDA), plaintiff filed a claim with the Contracting Officer for the Army Corps of Engineers in 1993. D. Prop. Find. 1126; Pl. Prop. Find. ¶43. After receiving no response within 60 days (a “deemed denial” under the CDA) (Pl.Prop. Find. ¶ 45), DuPont filed suit in the United States Court of Federal Claims. Thereafter, defendant expressed a willingness to negotiate a settlement and plaintiff voluntarily dismissed its case. D. Prop. Find. ¶41; Pl. Prop. Find. U 49.

Defendant identified David Schwegler of Army Material Command (AMC) as the appropriate Contracting Officer (CO) to review DuPont’s claim. Compl. (3/2/99) ¶ 47. On July 12, 1995, CO Schwegler issued a letter that plaintiff now characterizes as a decision regarding its claim and defendant characterizes as a settlement offer. Pl. Prop. Find. ¶53; D. Prop. Find. ¶44. In any event, plaintiff disputed the amount of reimbursement due as set forth in the July 12, 1995 letter, and CO Schwegler rescinded the terms of that letter. D. Prop. Find. ¶46; Pl. Prop. Find. ¶53. The Defense Contractors Audit Agency (DCAA) conducted an audit of DuPont’s claim at the request of CO Schwegler. Pl. Prop. Find. ¶ 61.

Plaintiff filed the complaint initiating this case on March 2, 1999. Plaintiff then moved for partial summary judgment on March 30, 2001; defendant filed a cross-motion for summary judgment on May 9, 2001. In the briefing that followed those motions, plaintiff argued that, although Supp. 22 had not been located, the Federal Rules of Evidence provided for proof of the contents of lost documents through secondary evidence. PL Br. (3/30/01) at 15. Accordingly, plaintiff argued that it could prove that Supp. 22 preserved the Indemnification and Reimbursement Clauses contained with the original contract. Id. Therefore, plaintiff asserted, the government was ultimately responsible for the costs plaintiff had incurred in responding to the Environmental Protection Agency’s CERCLA claims. Id. at 23. On the other hand, defendant first argued that Supp. 22 could not be proved to preserve the original contract’s Indemnification Clause. D. Br. (5/9/01) at 19. Defendant also asserted that even if both the Indemnification and Reimbursement Clauses could be proved to be preserved by Supp. 22, that neither would apply to CERCLA costs because (1) the Indemnification Clause did not specifically include such costs, Id., (2) the liability for CERCLA costs accrued long after the performance of the contract had ended and such costs were not provided for in the contract, Id. at 20, and (3) the Anti-Deficiency Act and its predecessor legislation prohibited an open-ended indemnification clause such as the one alleged to be in this contract, Id. at 27. We address each argument below.

II

The summary judgment process is “designed ‘to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action.’ ” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 327, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 1).

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Bluebook (online)
54 Fed. Cl. 361, 2002 WL 31505863, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ei-dupont-de-nemours-co-v-united-states-uscfc-2002.