Inter-Coastal Xpress, Inc. v. United States

49 Fed. Cl. 531, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 100, 2001 WL 641811
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJune 12, 2001
DocketNo. 00-441C
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 49 Fed. Cl. 531 (Inter-Coastal Xpress, Inc. 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
Inter-Coastal Xpress, Inc. v. United States, 49 Fed. Cl. 531, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 100, 2001 WL 641811 (uscfc 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

FUTEY, Judge.

This case is before the court on defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff opposes defendant’s motion, and in the alternative has brought a motion for leave to amend its complaint. Plaintiff Inter-Coastal Xpress, Inc. entered into contracts with the Department of Defense (DOD), acting on behalf of the United States government (defendant), for the transportation of perishable foods. Plaintiff has brought suit in this court, alleging a breach of contract due to defendant’s failure to pay plaintiffs costs associated with delays caused by defendant. Defendant claims that pursuant to the Interstate Commerce Act (ICA) plaintiffs claims are time-barred by a three-year statute of limitations. Plaintiff counters that the ICA does not apply in this case, because the breach of contract in question is covered by the Contract [533]*533Disputes Act (CDA). Plaintiff therefore contends that the statute of limitations of the CDA, allowing the filing of a suit within 12 months of a final decision by the contracting officer (CO), applies in this case, and that plaintiffs claims are properly before the court. In the alternative, plaintiff requests leave to amend its complaint to include additional causes of action, based on due process and the Tucker Act, if the court finds that its claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

Factual Background

In April 1994, DOD, through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), invited bids for the transportation of “perishable subsistence” for a three-year period, from October 1, 1994, until September 30, 1997. The Defense Personnel Support Center (DPSC), a division of DLA, sent the form invitations to potential bidders. The invitations contemplated an arrangement under which each individual shipment would be carried out by execution of a government bill of lading (GBL). Potential contractors could bid to provide transportation services for various divisions of the Defense Subsistence Office (DSO). The invitations included four copies of the form Perishable Subsistence Carrier Rate Tender and Service Offer (Tender); a bidder had to complete a Tender for each DSO division for which it wished to provide services.

Plaintiff completed the four copies of the Tender, submitting offers to serve DSO in Fort Worth, San Antonio, El Paso, and New Orleans. In its Tenders, plaintiff submitted, as instructed, a “single rate per one hundred pounds of freight to be shipped,” termed a “line haul charge.” Plaintiffs line haul charges did not include its calculations for possible additional charges for delays caused by DOD or its subdivisions. Additional charges may accrue to DOD, for example, when it demands “holdovers,” situations in which a carrier such as plaintiff is required to pick up a shipment in the evening, and then wait until the next morning to make the delivery. Item 28 of each Tender provides input spaces for various line haul charges for different routes and sizes of delivery. Item 29 of each Tender provides separate spaces to enter the rates for holdover charges. Plaintiff believed that it was required by the Tender forms to include its line haul charge in Item 28 separately from its proposed additional charges for holdovers. Plaintiff understood that it had to include those additional charge rates in Item 29.

DOD awarded plaintiff the contracts for Fort Worth, San Antonio, and New Orleans, and the parties entered into tender agreements1 to that effect. When the tender agreements were signed, the plaintiffs representative certified that he was qualified to bind plaintiff to a contract with the government pursuant to the ICA.

Once performance began on the contracts, however, DOD did not pay plaintiff the holdover charges incurred when shipments were held overnight. DPSC attempted to change the manner in which it paid plaintiff to include holdover charges. Thereafter, all payments for shipments originating out of DSO New Orleans that were delayed overnight or over the weekend included the appropriate holdover charges. At DSO in Fort Worth and San Antonio, however, very few of the holdover charges accrued by DOD were paid. In May 1995, after numerous telephone discussions, plaintiff wrote to DSO in Fort Worth and San Antonio, as well as DPSC and Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC), asking that holdover charges be included in the payments. Plaintiff wrote DPSC again in June 1995, after having received no response to its letters. In July of that year, MTMC replied to the inquiries, taking the position that plaintiff should have worked charges for holdovers as well as other additional rates and expenses into its line haul charges, and that DOD would not pay holdover charges in addition to what it had already paid. In September 1995, plaintiff [534]*534received a letter from MTMC which maintained the earlier refusal to pay holdover charges and also requested repayment for alleged overcharges from holdovers previously paid by DOD to plaintiff. Later correspondence between the parties revealed no change in DOD’s position.

Plaintiff apparently completed work on the contracts, providing transportation services from October 1, 1994, to September 30, 1997. On each shipment plaintiff made during this time, it submitted a claim for payment for its services to defendant. Plaintiff alleges that it included holdover charges when appropriate. Defendant made payments for the services usually within three weeks of delivery, but it declined to pay the allegedly applicable holdover charges in most cases. Plaintiff therefore submitted its claims directly to the General Services Administration (GSA), in order to resolve the disputed charges. Between November 29, 1996, and November 7, 1997, plaintiff made 2,416 claims for holdover charges to the GSA Office of Transportation Audits (OTA). OTA denied two of plaintiffs claims, on September 29, 1997, and November 20,1997, respectively, for the reason that the GBLs in question did not include requests for payment for holdover charges. OTA did not act on the rest of plaintiffs claims. Plaintiff then submitted all of its claims to the GSA Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA). GSBCA reviewed only the two denied claims, and dismissed the 2,414 remaining claims as prematurely filed. InterCoastal Xpress, Inc., 99-1 B.C.A. (CCH) ¶ 30,370 (G.S.B.C.A. Mar. 19, 1999). Finally, on August 8, 1999, DOD, in accordance with pertinent regulations, issued 2,308 Settlement Certificates denying plaintiffs claims. Each Settlement Certificate simply cited the GSBCA decision and denied the specific claim without further explanation. Thirty-five claims remain undecided. Of all the claims, approximately 200 were based on deficient payments received by plaintiff on or after July 26, 1997. In addition, close to 170 claims for shipments involving holdover charges have no corresponding check for payment on the line haul charges. It is unclear, therefore, to which shipments and deficient payments these holdover charges relate, and on what date the deficient payments, if any, were made.

Based on OTA’s denials, plaintiff brought a lawsuit in this court on July 26, 2000. Defendant filed its motion to dismiss on September 12, 2000. In its response of October 12, 2000, plaintiff included a motion for leave to amend its complaint. On May 22, 2001, the court heard oral argument on both motions.

Discussion

I. Motion to Dismiss

Defendant has moved to dismiss plaintiffs claims pursuant to RCFC 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
49 Fed. Cl. 531, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 100, 2001 WL 641811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/inter-coastal-xpress-inc-v-united-states-uscfc-2001.