Gregory Lumber Co. v. United States

29 Cont. Cas. Fed. 82,637, 230 Ct. Cl. 1041, 1982 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 493, 1982 WL 25316
United States Court of Claims·Decided July 23, 1982·No. No. 134-81C·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

This is defendant’s second motion for summary judgment in this case, this one on the merits. The first motion, which was granted in part by the court’s order of January 8,1982, challenged the jurisdiction of the court based on the twisted procedural posture of the case. We held in the January 8, 1982, 229 Ct. Cl. 762, order that plaintiff was barred from seeking relief under the Contract Disputes Act of 1978, but that the court had jurisdiction of the case under the Tucker Act. We remanded to the trial division on two issues. The trial division was first to determine whether plaintiff is [1042] entitled to trial de novo in the court under the Tucker Act or whether, due to a decision rendered on April 30,1981, by the Department of the Interior Board of Land Appeals (board), Wunderlich Act rules of limited review should apply. In either case, the trial division was then to address the merits.

Before the trial division had the opportunity to consider the case, defendant filed the present motion for summary judgment on the merits. Defendant attempts to avoid the procedural uncertainties of the case by urging that, regardless of the standard of review, plaintiff cannot prevail on the merits as a matter of law. Plaintiff, opposing the motion, alleges that there are genuine issues of disputed fact present in the case which preclude summary judgment and require trial de novo.

Neither party has briefed the procedural issue which was remanded to the trial division and upon which their respective views of the case depend. However, with the merits squarely before us, we find that defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on some issues and so remand to the trial division only on the remaining issues.

Plaintiff on the merits has three claims: the actual volume of timber harvested significantly underran the estimates contained in plaintiffs lump-sum timber sale contract with the Government; the amount of rock required for road construction was significantly greater than estimated in the contract; and the Government assessed against plaintiff road use fees for the use of alternative routes necessitated by a landslide on one of the logging roads used by plaintiff. Defendant makes substantive counterclaims which are addressed by neither party in connection with this motion.

1. Since the January 8, 1982, order and the briefing on this motion, the court has decided two cases which bear directly upon the timber quantity underrun question. Because these new cases preclude recovery by plaintiff as a matter of law, we see no reason to delay decision by remanding this issue to the trial division. Webco Lumber, Inc. v. United States, ante at 457, 677 F.2d 860 (1982), and Caffall Bros. Forest Products, Inc. v. United States, ante at 517, 678 F.2d 1071 (1982), hold that where the Government [1043] has clearly disclaimed any warranty of quantity of timber, that disclaimer is effective even if the contract and supporting documents provide estimates of quantity. The basis of the two opinions was the clear, unequivocal disclaimers in the contracts and bidding information.

The present case is in all material aspects identical to Webco,1 as plaintiff conceded in its brief (albeit before the Webco decision had been rendered). The "Deposit and Bid for Timber, Lump Sum Sale” forms and the contracts themselves are identical. They carefully state that the estimates are not to be construed as guarantees; they expressly disclaim any warranty of volume; they clearly require that payment is to be made without regard to the actual volume harvested; each encourages the contractor to make its own estimates; and each specifically states that the purchaser warrants that the contract is based upon its own inspection of the timber. In the face of this clear language, plaintiffs claims cannot stand.

In its opposition to summary judgment plaintiff argues that certain facts are in dispute and so summary judgment is precluded. Plaintiff wishes to explore the intent of the parties, industry practice, and the sufficiency of time for and the cost of a volume inspection by plaintiff. However, on the basis of the clear contractual language, plaintiff could not prevail regardless of what it proves in relation to the above disputed facts. A contractor cannot, as plaintiff did, sign a contract which states,

[purchaser warrants that this contract is accepted and executed on the basis of its examination and inspection of the timber sold under the contract and its opinion of the value thereof, in 1975, and then in 1982 come into this court, make the bare allegation that it had insufficient time to inspect the timber, and expect the court to override the contractual terms.

Plaintiff cannot recover as a matter of law. Being a question of law, the standard of review under the Wunder-lich Act is no different than for de novo consideration and [1044] so there is no need to decide the procedural issue as to the timber quantity underrun claim.

2. On plaintiffs claim for the additional rock needed to construct the logging roads, we also find that defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Plaintiffs argument is that the contract estimated that a certain amount of rock was needed to construct the roads to their finished specifications and that the Government is therefore liable for the amount of rock needed beyond that estimate. The contract, however, does not estimate amount of rock; rather, it sets out complete specifications for the finished road, including its dimensions and the quality of materials to be used. The estimates of amount of rock were plaintiffs, not defendant’s.

Plaintiff argues, however, that since it used "recognized engineering calculations” in its own estimates, such estimates were implicitly part of the contract. We must reject this premise. Plaintiff promised to build the roads for a fixed consideration — the timber it could extract from the forest — and plaintiff assumes the risk that its estimates of its costs of doing so are in error. McNamara Construction, Ltd. v. United States, 206 Ct. Cl. 1, 7-8, 509 F.2d 1166, 1169-70 (1975); Sperry Rand Corp. v. United States, 201 Ct. Cl. 169, 181, 475 F.2d 1168, 1175 (1973).

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Gregory Lumber Co. v. United States, 29 Cont. Cas. Fed. 82,637, 230 Ct. Cl. 1041, 1982 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 493, 1982 WL 25316 (cc 1982).

29 Cont. Cas. Fed. 82,637 (Gregory Lumber Co. v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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