Johnson v. United States

34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,522, 15 Cl. Ct. 169, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 125, 1988 WL 72646
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJuly 14, 1988
DocketNo. 393-86C
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,522 (Johnson 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
Johnson v. United States, 34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,522, 15 Cl. Ct. 169, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 125, 1988 WL 72646 (cc 1988).

Opinion

ORDER

MOODY R. TIDWELL, III, Judge:

This action came before the court on cross motions for summary judgment pursuant to RUSCC 56. Plaintiff sought summary judgment finding defendant liable for breach of contract to lease office and related use space. Defendant cross-motioned for summary judgment and claimed that no valid contract ever existed. The Claims Court has jurisdiction over the subject matter of this suit pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1491 (1982).

FACTS

On March 13, 1984, defendant issued a Solicitation For Offers (solicitation) in order to obtain office and related use space. The solicitation specified, among other things, that the due date for submitting offers was April 19, 1984 and that all offers submitted must remain open until September 17, 1984. Defendant received four timely offers in response to its solicitation, including, plaintiffs. Upon evaluation, plaintiffs offer received an evaluation second only to the offer of Dale and Rose Nye. By a letter dated July 9, 1984, plaintiff revised its first offer with one which (1) contained terms less favorable to defendant, and (2) limited its time for acceptance by defendant to a point in time prior to September 17, 1984. Notwithstanding these defaults, on or about July 23, 1984, defendant sent a letter to plaintiff accepting plaintiffs revised offer. Plaintiff acknowledged receipt of this Notice of Lease Award on August 3, 1984.

Around July 23, 1984, Dale and Rose Nye began to investigate the basis for the rejection of their offer. After several meetings with defendant, defendant determined that it had mistakenly rejected the Nye offer. Defendant also was in the process of reassessing its needs and had anticipated that it did not need as large a facility. Accordingly, defendant informed plaintiff, by letter dated November 9, 1984, that award of the contract to plaintiff had been made in error and that the resultant contract was terminated for the convenience of the government.1 There was no clause in either the solicitation or the accompanying agreements which authorized defendant to terminate the contract for convenience.

Pursuant to the terms of the solicitation, and in accordance with the Contracts Disputes Act, 41 U.S.C. § 605 (1982), plaintiff submitted a claim for damages to defendant on December 2, 1985. Plaintiff never received a decision from the contracting officer responsive to its claim. Having received no decision within 60 days of its claim, plaintiff brought suit in this court. 41 U.S.C. § 605(c)(5). Thereafter, plaintiff moved for summary judgment on the issue of liability. In its motion for summary judgment, plaintiff alleged that defendant’s acceptance of plaintiffs revised offer created a binding contract which defendant terminated prematurely. Plaintiff further alleged that defendant's termination for convenience was an insufficient basis for termination because the contract did not explicitly provide for termination for convenience nor could termination for convenience properly be incorporated into the contract by operation of law. G.L. Christian & Assocs. v. United States, 160 Ct. Cl. 1, 312 F.2d 418, cert. denied, 375 U.S. 954, 84 S.Ct. 444, 11 L.Ed.2d 314 (1963). Accordingly, plaintiff contended that defendant’s termination constituted a breach of contract. This breach, plaintiff asserted, [171]*171rendered defendant liable for all of plaintiff’s resulting damages including its expenditures, losses, and anticipated profits.

In defendant’s response to plaintiff’s motion and concurrent cross-motion for summary judgment, defendant contended that the contract with plaintiff never legally came into being. Instead, defendant contended, it was void as an illegal contract based upon the late offer, which offer could not legally be accepted. Defendant further contended that had the contract been binding, termination was proper because plaintiff had been in default at the time of cancellation and defendant had the right to terminate in order to protect public confidence in the fairness of the procurement process and to insure that all offer-ors’ proposals were evaluated properly.

Plaintiff responded to defendant’s cross-motion by asserting that plaintiff had not been in default but instead had been preparing to deliver the premises to defendant by the specified date. In addition, plaintiff contended that defendant ought to be precluded from asserting illegality of contract for the first time in its response and cross-motion because RUSCC 8(c) requires illegality to be raised as an affirmative defense in the initial pleadings. Defendant asserted that the issue of whether this court had jurisdiction made illegality of contract an issue by implication because plaintiff was required to plead and prove the existence of a contract in order for this court to have jurisdiction, and defendant had argued in its answer to plaintiff’s complaint that a binding contract never existed. Further, defendant moved to amend its answer if this court found that illegality needed to be pled in the initial pleadings in order for it to be considered on these motions.

DISCUSSION

Summary judgment is only available where there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. RUSCC 56(c). Any doubts as to whether a genuine issue of material fact exists must be settled in favor of the non-moving party. Housing Corp. v. United States, 199 Ct.Cl. 705, 710, 468 F.2d 922, 924 (1972); Campbell v. United States, 2 Cl.Ct. 247, 249 (1983). Inferences drawn from the proposed facts must also be viewed in a light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 158-59, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1608-09, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 994, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962); Ball v. United States, 1 Cl.Ct. 180, 183 (1982). In conjunction with the parties’ cross-motions, each has submitted proposed uncontroverted facts and statements of genuine issues.

All the disputed issues raised by the parties hinge on two main issues: (1) whether defendant’s purported acceptance of plaintiff’s revised offer was binding on either of the parties; and (2) whether plaintiff was actually capable of performing the lease according to its terms. Neither of these disputed issues, however, create an obstacle to this court in reviewing the motions for summary judgment. The first disputed issue does not act as a barrier to this court because, as defendant correctly noted, it is an issue of law, not an issue of fact, and issues of law are properly decided on motion for summary judgment. RUSCC 56(c). Likewise, the second issue does not deter this court from reviewing these motions because, though it is a disputed issue of fact, it is irrelevant to what the court believes is the dispositive analysis and decision. See Housing Corp., 199 Ct.Cl. at 710-11, 468 F.2d at 925.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,522, 15 Cl. Ct. 169, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 125, 1988 WL 72646, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-united-states-cc-1988.