Exelis, Inc.

CourtArmed Services Board of Contract Appeals
DecidedAugust 29, 2016
DocketASBCA No. 60131
StatusPublished

This text of Exelis, Inc. (Exelis, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Exelis, Inc., (asbca 2016).

Opinion

ARMED SERVICES BOARD OF CONTRACT APPEALS

Appeal of -- ) ) Exelis, Inc. ) ASBCA No. 60131 ) Under Contract Nos. N65236-07-C-5876 ) FA8532-12-C-0002 )

APPEARANCES FOR THE APPELLANT: Steven M. Masiello, Esq. Joseph G. Martinez, Esq. Dentons US LLP Denver, CO

APPEARANCES FOR THE GOVERNMENT: E. Michael Chiaparas, Esq. DCMA Chief Trial Attorney Samuel W. Morris, Esq. Trial Attorney Defense Contract Management Agency Chantilly, VA

OPINION BY ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE D'ALESSANDRIS ON APPELLANT'S MOTION TO SUSTAIN THE APPEAL AND DISMISS THE GOVERNMENT'S CLAIM

Appellant, Exelis Inc. (Exelis) appeals from a contracting officer's final decision asserting a government claim pursuant to Cost Accounting Standard (CAS) 404, pertaining to Exelis' purportedly noncompliant accounting for the costs of a building lease. The parties do not dispute that Exelis is subject to the CAS by virtue of its performing over $50 million per year in government contracts. See 48 C.F.R. §§ 9901.306, 9903.201. As a contractor subject to the CAS, Exelis is required to measure its indirect costs in accordance with the CAS and its disclosed cost accounting practices. One of these indirect costs is Exel is' cost of leasing office space that is then allocated to Exelis' government contracts. The government asserts that Exelis improperly accounted for the lease costs by treating the lease as an operating lease rather than a capital lease. According to the government, this mischaracterization of the lease resulted in Exelis overcharging the government for the indirect cost of the building lease in each of Exelis' government contracts, both flexibly-priced and fixed-price. Here, the record contains a cost type contract, N65236-07-C-5876 (R4, tab 2) and a firm-fixed-price contract, FA8532-12-C-0002 (R4, tab 13) that the government contends are representative ofExelis' government contracts (R4, tab 11 at 149).

In 2007, the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) released its audit of Exelis' calendar year 2004 final indirect cost rates (R4, tab 3). In the audit report, DCAA questioned Exelis' lease costs, finding that the building lease was a capital lease, and that Exelis could only include building depreciation in its indirect cost pool rather than the entire lease cost (id. at 81 ). Fallowing submissions of additional information from Exelis, and further auditing by DCAA, in June 2015, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) contracting officer found that Exelis had improperly treated the building lease as an operating lease, rather than a capital lease, pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 31.205-11 (m) ( 1998). 1 Based upon the purported FAR violation, DCMA determined that Exelis' accounting treatment was not in compliance with CAS 404, and asserted a government claim in the amount of $3,821,534 due to increased costs purportedly paid by the government on Exelis' contracts from 2003 through the date of the final decision.

Pending before the Board is Exelis' motion to sustain the appeal and to dismiss the government's claim for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Exelis asserts that the government cannot state a claim for a CAS 404 violation, even assuming that the government is correct that Exelis improperly accounted for the building lease. Next, Exelis argues that the final decision asserts a sum certain with regard to the purported CAS violation, but did not assert a sum certain with regard to the purported FAR violation, and; therefore, once the CAS claim is dismissed, the Board must dismiss the government's claim in its entirety for failure to assert a sum certain. The DCMA opposes Exelis' motion. We grant Exelis' motion in part and deny the motion in part. Even if the government is correct that Exelis' accounting for the building lease is in violation of the FAR, we hold that the government cannot establish a CAS violation. However, we hold that the FAR violation and the CAS violation rely upon the same operative facts and therefore that the government is asserting the "same claim" for purposes of the Contract Disputes Act (CDA) and deny Exelis' motion to dismiss the government's claim for failure to assert a sum certain.

STATEMENT OF FACTS (SOF) FOR PURPOSES OF THE MOTION

1. Exelis, through a predecessor in interest, leased the Summit Park Building in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1997 (compl. ii 6, answer ii 6).

2. Pursuant to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Exelis had to characterize the lease as either an operating lease or a capital lease for financial accounting purposes. Pursuant to Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) No. 13, Accounting for Leases (Nov. 1976), a lease must be treated as a capital lease if any one of four tests is satisfied: (1) the lease transfers ownership of the property to the lessee by the end of the lease term; (2) the lease contains a purchase option; (3) the lease term is equal to 75 percent or more of the estimated economic life of the leased property; or (4) the present value, at the beginning of the lease, of the minimum lease payments, subject to certain adjustments, equals or exceeds 90 percent of the fair market value of the property, again subject to certain adjustments. FAS No. 13, ii 7.

1 FAR 31.205-11 (m) has been revised and reworded and is now codified at 31.205-11 (h). The changes are not relevant to the resolution of this motion. 2 3. Exelis accumulated and reported its lease costs for the Summit Park Building as an operating lease (comp I. ii 8, answer ii 8).

4. FAR 31.205-1 l(m) (1998) provides that:

48 CFR 9904.404, Capitalization of Tangible Assets, applies to assets acquired by a '"capital lease" as defined in Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 13 (FAS-13), Accounting for Leases, issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (F ASB). Compliance with 48 CFR 9904.404 and FAS-13 requires that such leased assets (capital leases) be treated as purchased assets; i.e., be capitalized and the capitalized value of such assets be distributed over their useful lives as depreciation charges, or over the leased life as amortization charges as appropriate. Assets whose leases are classified as capital leases under FAS-13 are subject to the requirements of 31.205-11 while assets acquired under leases classified as operating leases are subject to the requirements on rental costs in 31.205-36. The standards of financial accounting and reporting prescribed by FAS-13 are incorporated into this principle and shall govern its application, except as provided in subparagraphs (1 ), (2), and (3) below.

( 1) Rental costs under a sale and leaseback arrangement shall be allowable up to the amount that would have been allowed had the contractor retained title to the property.

(2) Capital leases, as defined in FAS-13, for all real and personal property, between any related parties are subject to the requirements of this subparagraph 31.205-1 l(m). If it is determined that the terms of the lease have been significantly affected by the fact that the lessee and lessor are related, depreciation charges shall not be allowed in excess of those which would have occurred if the lease contained terms consistent with those found in a lease between unrelated parties.

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