GAF Corp. v. United States

36 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,803, 19 Cl. Ct. 490, 1990 U.S. Claims LEXIS 38, 1990 WL 11139
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 12, 1990
DocketNo. 287-83C
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 36 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,803 (GAF Corp. 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
GAF Corp. v. United States, 36 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,803, 19 Cl. Ct. 490, 1990 U.S. Claims LEXIS 38, 1990 WL 11139 (cc 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

NETTESHEIM, Judge.

This case is before the court on defendant’s motion to dismiss or for summary judgment. Plaintiff has opposed and argument has been held.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff GAF Corporation (“plaintiff”), a manufacturer of asbestos products, sued the United States on May 5, 1983, for im[491]*491plied contractual indemnification for damages sustained as a result of actions by or on behalf of shipyard workers to recover for injuries or death due to exposure to asbestos. The case proceeded in tandem with similar cases, ultimately eleven in all, filed by other asbestos manufacturers. By mid-1986 it had been decided that the cases would be tried serially. Plaintiffs was second in line. The first, a six-week trial, was scheduled to begin on March 16, 1987. On July 16, 1986, all the then-pending cases were reassigned to this judge.

Before the first trial began, this court certified to the Federal Circuit for expedited ruling an order dismissing three of the cases, including the case scheduled for trial, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Keene Corp. v. United States, 12 Cl.Ct. 197 (1987). The Federal Circuit did not act on the certification, although it was accepted. On the second day of trial, the appeals court deferred consideration of the order dismissing the case on jurisdictional grounds until the trial was completed. Following the merits decision in Johns-Man-ville Corp. v. United States, 13 Cl.Ct. 72 (1987), this court entered an order on November 4, 1987, staying all the remaining cases pending resolution of the post-trial appeals. The Federal Circuit affirmed the Keene order of dismissal for lack of jurisdiction in a decision styled Johns-Manville Corp. v. United States, 855 F.2d 1556 (Fed.Cir.1988) (per curiam). The Federal Circuit simultaneously vacated the trial court’s merits decision since jurisdiction had been found wanting. Johns-Manville Corp. v. United States, vacated on jurisdictional grounds, 855 F.2d 1571 (Fed.Cir.1988) (per curiam).1 The remaining cases were stayed pending resolution of the petition for writ of certiorari concerning the Federal Court’s jurisdictional ruling. Certiorari was denied on March 6,1989, — U.S. -, 109 S.Ct. 1342, 103 L.Ed.2d 811 (1989).

This court then proceeded to consider whether the Federal Circuit’s jurisdictional ruling applied to the remaining cases. In its opinion in Keene Corp. v. United States, 17 Cl.Ct. 146 (1989), appeals docketed, Nos. 89-1638, 89-1639 & 89-1648 (Fed.Cir. Aug. 2, 8, 1989), this court dismissed seven of the eight remaining asbestos cases for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The eighth case, plaintiff’s, was not dismissed in Keene. On September 15, 1989, defendant filed a motion to dismiss or, alternatively, for summary judgment contending that the claims in plaintiff’s complaint were made in other cases and have been addressed and dismissed by other courts. The motion has been briefed pursuant to RUSCC 56 and seeks summary judgment, since the parties have presented — and the court has considered — extra-pleading materials in ruling on defendant’s motion. See RUSCC 12(b).

After the Federal Circuit’s jurisdictional ruling and before defendant filed the instant motion, the Federal Circuit issued binding precedent in Lopez v. A.C. & S., Inc., 858 F.2d 712 (Fed.Cir.1988), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 109 S.Ct. 3185, 3186, 105 L.Ed.2d 694 (1989), which affirmed dismissal of similar complaints, inter alia, for failure to state a cause of action. The Federal Circuit’s decision was unanimous among a special five-judge panel convened to rule on that test case. See 858 F.2d at 713. Although the standards governing summary judgment apply, it is useful to examine the four claims themselves in plaintiff’s complaint and juxtapose them with similar claims that the Federal Circuit has addressed and found to be legally insufficient.

1. Plaintiff’s first claim is for breach of an implied contractual warranty, arising from the Government’s promulgation and enforcement of contract specifications for asbestos products, that the specifications written by the Government were for products that would be safe and could be used safely. The alleged breach occurred because asbestos products manufactured pursuant to those specifications resulted in [492]*492injuries to individuals exposed to those products.

The first claim made by Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. (“Eagle-Picher”), another manufacturer of asbestos products, in its third-party indemnification complaint in 18 suits seeking damages for injuries to shipyard workers arising from exposure to asbestos (decided sub nom. Lopez v. Johns Manville, 649 F.Supp. 149 (W.D.Wash. 1986), affd sub nom. Lopez v. A.C. & S., Inc., 858 F.2d 712 (Fed.Cir.1988)), is essentially identical to plaintiffs first claim, adding only the allegation that Eagle-Picher’s products conformed to government-promulgated specifications. Raymark Industries, Inc. (“Raymark”), also a defendant in the Lopez cases, filed a third-party indemnification complaint claiming, inter alia, that the Government breached its implied warranty that asbestos products conforming to government specifications would be safe and could be used safely.

In affirming the district court’s dismissal of Lopez, the Federal Circuit surveyed cases in which a warranty of specifications had been found and concluded that one can be implied in a supply contract only when the Government’s design specifications tell the supplier “just how to do the job.” 858 F.2d at 716. In respect of manufacturing asbestos products, the Federal Circuit declined to imply a warranty only upon evidence that “the government specified any characteristic at all in the merchandise it purchased____” 858 F.2d at 715. Rather, the manufacturers would have to show “whether the government specifications differed at all from those of private customers of Raymark and Eagle-Picher, or if they did, whether the difference related to the asbestos content of the material supplied.” 858 F.2d at 715-16. Since EaglePicher did not make a sufficient showing that the Government’s specifications were design, or “how the government could have supposed it needed to tell Raymark and Eagle-Picher how to make asbestos insulation, or how they needed to rely on such instructions,” 858 F.2d at 716, any implied warranty running from buyer to manufacturer to indemnify for increased costs associated with the production of asbestos products would be implied in law and, therefore, not within the Claims Court’s Tucker Act jurisdiction. Id.

Thus, to avoid the holding of Lopez, plaintiff in the case at bar must make a showing, sufficient to overcome defendant’s summary judgment motion, that the Government had so far intruded itself into the manufacturing process that the specifications under which plaintiff manufactured its asbestos products could support an implied-in-fact warranty. Plaintiff must also make a showing that the asbestos products that it sold to the Government differed from its commercial products — such that the manufacture of plaintiff’s commercial products did not put plaintiff on notice of the hazard inherent in the products sold to the Government.

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Bluebook (online)
36 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,803, 19 Cl. Ct. 490, 1990 U.S. Claims LEXIS 38, 1990 WL 11139, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gaf-corp-v-united-states-cc-1990.