Kalis Clothing Manufacturing Co. v. United States

137 Ct. Cl. 718, 1957 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 173, 1957 WL 8255
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMarch 6, 1957
DocketNo. 49429
StatusPublished

This text of 137 Ct. Cl. 718 (Kalis Clothing Manufacturing Co. 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
Kalis Clothing Manufacturing Co. v. United States, 137 Ct. Cl. 718, 1957 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 173, 1957 WL 8255 (cc 1957).

Opinion

JoNes, Chief Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, originally a partnership but subsequently incorporated, sues to recover $154,728.40 which it claims is the balance due it under a contract in which it agreed to manufacture 40,000 overcoats for the Army. The original contract was awarded to plaintiff in 1946 and was one of 18 awarded by the Army to various manufacturers.

The facts, which are set out more fully in the court’s findings of fact, are as follows: On June 14,1946, the Quartermaster Purchasing Office at New York issued invitations for bids for the manufacture of Army field overcoats with removable liners. The invitations stated that the informal bids received would be used as a basis for negotiating contracts.

On June 19, 1946, the plaintiff submitted a bid for the manufacture of 40,000 overcoats at a unit price of $22.75. [720]*720The bid was accepted and on June 29, 1946, a written contract was entered into between plaintiff and the defendant for the manufacture by plaintiff of 40,000 overcoats at the unit price stated in the bid. On November 27, 1946, the parties executed Modification “C” to the contract which reduced the unit price from $22.75 to $21.

Article 16 of the contract provided that, except as otherwise specifically provided in the contract, all disputes concerning questions of fact which were not disposed of by mutual agreement of the parties would be decided by the contracting officer. This article further provided that the contractor could appeal decisions by the contracting officer to the Secretary of War, and that the Secretary’s decision would be final and conclusive upon the parties.

The contract also stated that certain supplementary contract provisions entitled “Kevision of Price” were incorporated and made a part of the contract, except that the percentage mentioned in the “Kevision of Price” article was changed from 40 percent to 80 percent. The “Kevision of Price” article, which is set out in the court’s finding 6, provided, inter aim, that after 40 percent of the items had been delivered the parties would negotiate to revise the price of all the items covered by the contract; that the contractor would submit a new estimate and breakdown of the unit cost and other relevant data; that the parties would negotiate promptly in good faith as to a revised price, and that if the parties failed to agree the dispute would be disposed of in accordance with the article of the contract entitled “Disputes.” (Article 16.)

On March 17, 1947, plaintiff entered into a subcontract with the W. & C. Clothing Company which agreed to manufacture 7,500 of the overcoats required in plaintiff’s contract at a unit price of $16.06. The W. & C. Clothing Company was one of the 18 contractors engaged in the production of the same type of overcoat for the Army and its contract was identical in form with that of the plaintiff.

In consideration of the Government’s permitting it to subcontract the manufacture of the 7,500 overcoats, plaintiff agreed that any revision of the subcontract unit price of $16.06 would be based “solely upon costs and profits of the [721]*721subcontractor.” The subcontractor delivered the 7,500 overcoats during 1947 and was paid by plaintiff at a unit price of $16.06, or a total of $120,450. Plaintiff invoiced these overcoats to the Government at a unit price of $21 and received therefor payments aggregating $157,500. The contracting officer subsequently determined that the revised unit price for the W. & C. Clothing Company should be $15.65 for its entire production of overcoats, including the 7,500 manufactured for the plaintiff, and no appeal was taken from that decision.

The evidence does not reveal what negotiations were carried on by the parties, but on October 16,1947, the contracting officer wrote plaintiff, stating that in view of the fact that the parties had failed to agree to a revised price, he had determined that $15 was a fair and reasonable unit price for the 40,000 overcoats. The contracting officer stated that he was taking this action in accordance with the “Revision of Price” article and the “Disputes” article of the contract.

On November 3, 1947, plaintiff filed an appeal from the contracting officer’s decision with the Secretary of War.

On November 24, 1947, the contracting officer notified plaintiff that the contract had been terminated with respect to 3,300 overcoats which had not been delivered to the Army. At that time plaintiff had manufactured and delivered 29,200 overcoats, and the subcontractor had delivered 7,500 overcoats.

On November 13, 1947, the contracting officer issued an amended determination in which he raised the unit price of the 40,000 overcoats from $15 to $15.65.

Plaintiff’s appeal was heard by the Army Board of Contract Appeals on April 21, 1948. On June 14, 1948, the Board issued a decision, modifying the contracting officer’s revised price and fixing the sum of $15,842 as the unit price for the 29,200 overcoats manufactured by the plaintiff under the contract. A rehearing was subsequently held on September 16,1948, after which the Board reaffirmed its former decision in a supplemental opinion. Both decisions of the Board were adopted by the Secretary of the Army.

[722]*722At the hearing before the Board, the plaintiff submitted a statement of its operating costs for the calendar year 1947 as the cost of its performance of the overcoat contract. The Government offered in evidence an audit of plaintiff’s records for the entire period of performance from December 1, 1946, to December 31, 1947. This audit had been conducted by a representative of the Army Audit Agency. In conducting his audit the Army auditor took into account the fact that the plaintiff had carried on some civilian business while performing under the overcoat contract and allocated a portion of plaintiff’s costs and expenses to the civilian work done by plaintiff. After making several adjustments and disallowances for items he considered not properly chargeable to the Government contract, the auditor reported that plaintiff’s unit cost for manufacturing the 29,200 overcoats was $14.87544. This unit figure did not include officers’ salaries or profit.

The Board, after considering the evidence before it, determined that the unit cost to plaintiff of producing the 29,200 overcoats was $13,659, not including officers’ salaries or profit. In arriving at this figure the Board did not adopt the accounting method used by the Army auditor, nor did it accept the costs as determined in that audit. The Board also determined that 5 percent of the unit cost of production would be a proper compensation for officers’ salaries. This resulted in an allowance of $.683 per garment for officers’ salaries. The Board then considered the question of plaintiff’s profit and determined that an allowance of $1.50 per garment as profit would be reasonable under the circumstances. This figure amounted to approximately 10*4 percent of plaintiff’s unit cost of production and allowance per garment for officers’ salaries. By adding the unit profit of $1.50 to $13,659, the unit cost of production, and to $.683, the unit allowance for officers’ salaries, the Board arrived at its final unit price of $15,842.

The commissioner of this court who heard the testimony and took the evidence in this case has found that the unit cost to plaintiff of producing the 29,200 overcoats was $15.14463, exclusive of officers’ salaries and profit.

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137 Ct. Cl. 718, 1957 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 173, 1957 WL 8255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kalis-clothing-manufacturing-co-v-united-states-cc-1957.