Information System & Networks Corp. v. United States

64 Fed. Cl. 599, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 85, 2005 WL 741855
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMarch 31, 2005
DocketNo. 04-385 C
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 64 Fed. Cl. 599 (Information System & Networks Corp. 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
Information System & Networks Corp. v. United States, 64 Fed. Cl. 599, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 85, 2005 WL 741855 (uscfc 2005).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

BLOCK, Judge.

I. Introduction

Plaintiff, Information Systems & Networks Corporation (“ISN”), brings this claim under the Contract Disputes Act to challenge the “final decision” of an Administrative Contracting Officer. The final decision denied ISN’s claims for reimbursement of state income tax payments, lost profits and recovery of Prompt Payment Act interest. All of ISN’s claims relate to various negotiated fixed-price contracts1 or negotiated cost-reimbursement contracts2 from the years 1985 to 2000. All of these claims, or at least ISN’s legal arguments, relate to the earlier opinion of this court in Information Systems & Networks Corp. v. United States, 48 Fed.Cl. 265 (2000) (hereinafter Information I). That de[601]*601cisión determined that plaintiffs state income tax costs were reimbursable expenses that the government should pay under ISN’s various cost-reimbursement contracts. ISN now argues that, based on the rule of Information I, it is similarly entitled to reimbursement of state income tax payments for its negotiated fixed-price contracts. ISN also argues that it is entitled to “lost profits” on its cost-reimbursement contracts that were suffered because the government improperly estimated the costs of ISN’s performance. Finally, ISN argues that it is entitled to Prompt Payment Act interest on all of its contracts.

The government has filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction or, in the alternative, summary judgment on the merits of ISN’s claims. Based on the record before the court, subject matter jurisdiction in this court is proper and defendant’s motion to dismiss will therefore be denied. However, it is clear that based on the relevant undisputed facts defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on each of ISN’s claims. Accordingly, the government’s motion for summary judgment will be granted.

II. Background

ISN is a Subehapter S Corporation3 that provides computer, telecommunication, and security systems integration engineering services. Compl. at 116. ISN has provided services to defendant under numerous contracts since its inception in 1980. Id,

In 1998, ISN sued the government under the Contract Disputes Act in a case closely related to this one. In that action, this court considered whether state taxes paid by the shareholder of an S corporation were reimbursable costs under cost-reimbursement type contracts (including “eost-plus-fixed-fee” type contracts and “time and materials” type contracts). See Information I, 48 Fed.Cl. at 272. ISN argued that the state income tax costs it incurred performing the cost-reimbursement contracts should have been classified as allowable, allocable expenses by the contracting officer, and demanded reimbursement of those expenses pursuant to its contracts. ISN contended that an S corporation should be treated the same as any other “commercial organization” under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (“FAR”) provisions covering reimbursable costs. Id. at 269; see generally 48 C.F.R. Subpart 31.2. Defendant countered that because the shareholder, rather than the S corporation itself, paid the state taxes,4 ISN was not entitled to reimbursement of those costs. Information I, 48 Fed.Cl. at 269.

Information I concluded that even though the S corporation itself did not pay the state taxes, the tax liability was merely shifted to the S corporation’s shareholder, rather than falling within any applicable exemption that relieved the tax liability altogether. Id. at 269-70. Therefore, such taxation fit under the express terms of 48 C.F.R. § 31.205-41, which provides that taxes “that are required to be paid and are paid” are allowable expenses. Id. According to the court, the fact that nothing in the relevant FAR provisions indicated that S corporations should be treated differently than other commercial organizations supported this conclusion. Id. Thus, the court concluded that ISN was entitled to reimbursement for state tax costs incurred performing its cost-reimbursement contracts. Id. at 272.

In June 2003, ISN precipitated the current case by filing two Contract Disputes Act claims with the Defense Contract Management Agency (“DCMA”), asserting three grounds of recovery based on the rule of Information I. See Def.’s App. at 23, 29. First, ISN demanded reimbursement of state tax costs incurred performing various fixed-price contracts from 1985-2000. See id. at 23. That claim sought to extend Information Fs rule regarding cost-reimbursement type contracts to fixed-price contracts as [602]*602well. See id. According to ISN, such relief was appropriate because “there is no difference between a negotiated Government fixed-price contract and a cost-reimbursable or time-and-materials contract.” Id. at 24. Second, ISN demanded lost profits on its cost-reimbursement contracts, stemming from the contracting officer’s initial failure to classify state tax costs as reimbursable expenses (which had been rectified by Information I). See id. at 31. ISN argued that it would have been entitled to a proportionally higher fixed-fee or profit margin if state taxes had been considered reimbursable at the time those contracts were negotiated. See id. Finally, ISN demanded interest under the Prompt Payment Act (“PPA”), 31 U.S.C. § 3901-07, for both its cost-reimbursement contract and fixed-price contract claims. See id. at 26, 31.

ISN’s CDA claim failed to identify the individual contracts on which its claims were based. In August and again in December 2003, the DCMA Administrative Contracting Officer (“ACO”) requested that ISN identify particular contracts or contractual terms that formed the basis of its claims. Id. at 34-37. On January 20, 2004, ISN submitted to the ACO a list several pages long of contract numbers and other identifying information for the contracts upon which it based its claims. See id. at 39-62.

On March 3, 2004, the ACO issued its final decision, denying each of ISN’s claims. See Compl. Ex. A. The ACO concluded that Information I did not apply to fixed-price contracts and that, more generally, the rules related to cost reimbursement were irrelevant to fixed-price contracts. See id. The ACO also concluded that ISN’s lost profits claim was in effect an argument that its cost-reimbursement contracts were cost-plus-a-percentage-of-eost contracts that are prohibited under 10 U.S.C. § 2306. See id. Finally, the ACO denied the PPA claims, stating that it lacked authority over the claims related to the cost-reimbursement contracts (which had been raised in the Information I litigation) and that ISN had failed to provide documentation regarding the claims related to the fixed-price contracts. See id.

On March 11, 2004, ISN filed its complaint in this court seeking review of the ACO’s final decision. ISN’s complaint raises the same claims it referred to the ACO in June 2003, that (a) Information I

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Zafer Taahhut Insaat Ve Ticaret, A.S. v. United States
120 Fed. Cl. 604 (Federal Claims, 2015)
Spectrum Sciences & Software, Inc. v. United States
98 Fed. Cl. 8 (Federal Claims, 2011)
Garreaux v. United States
77 Fed. Cl. 726 (Federal Claims, 2007)
ATK Thiokol, Inc. v. United States
76 Fed. Cl. 654 (Federal Claims, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 Fed. Cl. 599, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 85, 2005 WL 741855, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/information-system-networks-corp-v-united-states-uscfc-2005.