Lindsay v. United States

42 Cont. Cas. Fed. 77,326, 41 Fed. Cl. 388, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 129, 1998 WL 338180
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJune 25, 1998
DocketNo. 97-179 C
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 42 Cont. Cas. Fed. 77,326 (Lindsay 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
Lindsay v. United States, 42 Cont. Cas. Fed. 77,326, 41 Fed. Cl. 388, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 129, 1998 WL 338180 (uscfc 1998).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

HODGES, Judge.

Plaintiff Doreen Lindsay seeks additional compensation from her mail transportation and delivery contract. The solicitation for the contract misstated the total number of mailboxes to which mail delivery was required, resulting in her allegedly not being paid adequately for work performed. Plaintiff claims that the contract provides an upward adjustment in compensation in this situation. We disagree, and therefore must dismiss this case.

[389]*389BACKGROUND

Plaintiff was awarded a mail transportation and delivery contract in December 1995. The term of the contract was December 9, 1995 through June 30, 1997. The mail route was in Great Mills, Maryland. Prior to award of the contract, plaintiff had delivered a larger route under an emergency contract that included the awarded route. The term of the emergency contract was October 1994 to December 1995. The solicitation for the new contract provided estimates relating to mileage, hours, and number of mailboxes to be serviced on the route, but cautioned:

The estimated annual miles per trip are given only as information. Prior to submitting a bid, the bidder should determine the actual miles.
The estimated annual hours are approximately the number of hours needed to operate the trips as they are shown in the schedule. Also included in the total estimated annual hours are the number of hours needed for casing, loading/unloading and mail mark-up. Prior to submitting a bid/proposal, the bidder/offeror must determine the actual hours.
The hours are based on 459 total boxes....1

The solicitation estimated 1,768 hours and 4,333.9 miles per year. Plaintiff verified the hour's and the mileage. The Government accepted plaintiffs bid for $25,000 and she began servicing the route.

The Postal Service conducted a new mailbox count in December 1995. It revealed a total of 503 mailboxes on the route, 44 boxes above the number listed in the solicitation. Plaintiff notified the contracting officer of the discrepancy in the count, and requested an increase in compensation based on the actual box count.

In April 1996, defendant adjusted the payment under the contract pursuant to clause 12(a)(1) of the “Basic Surface Transportation Services Contract — General Provisions” attached as part of the Statement of Service. Section 12(a), entitled “Service Changes,” provides as follows:

INSIGNIFICANT MINOR SERVICE CHANGES. The Contracting Officer may, at any time, without consulting the contractor, issue orders directing an extension, curtailment, change in line of travel, revision of route, or increase or decrease in frequency of service or number of trips and fixing an adjustment in the Contractor’s compensation which increases or decreases the contractor’s rate of pay by no more than $1000. If the Contractor believes the increased or decreased cost of providing the service required by the order exceeds the increase made in compensation, he may request an adjustment of compensation for the service change.2

The adjustment included a lump sum payment of $222.11 for past performance and an additional $755.93 to be paid over the term of the contract. The dollar amounts were based on an increase of .7 miles necessary to perform the route following an increase of 10 mailboxes assigned to the route and an additional 50 hours per year to service the route. The Government did not provide additional compensation for the 44 boxes missing from the original solicitation. While the change in service from the original contract route was an extension of the route by .7 miles and an addition of 10 mailboxes, the service order indicated a 54-box increase to reflect the actual count. An additional adjustment in May of $182.84 compensated plaintiff for 15 more hours necessary to perform the route.

Plaintiff received a final decision in August 1996 denying her claim for additional com[390]*390pensation. The contracting officer’s final decision included the following:

When you were awarded your contract on December 9, 1995, there were 509 actual boxes being served on your contract route. When we solicited for service on this contract, we inadvertently listed 459 as the number of boxes being served. Recently, we were informed of our error and as a result, we corrected the box count to reflect 509. In addition, a box extension effective April 20, 1996 was also added to your [Highway Contract Route], which increased the box count to its present total of 513 boxes. You have been properly compensated for this extension.
I would like to point out that you were the contractor of record for HCR 206CU, the emergency contract that became the present HCR 20653. At the time of contract solicitation, there were 509 boxes on your emergency HCR. As the contractor of record, you knew or should have known, what the exact box total was and that total should have been the basis for the formulation of your contract bid. With the exception of the April 20, 1996 extension, there has been no changes in the box total.
Due to the fact that there was no actual increase in the total number of boxes on HCR 20653 from contract solicitation until now (with the exception of the 4 box extension), and because you are successfully operating your contract within the allotted time and mileage, your request for increased compensation is denied.

Plaintiff brought this action within twelve months of the contracting officer’s final decision.

DISCUSSION

1. Adjustments in Annual Hours

Plaintiff contends that the inaccurate box count entitles her to compensation based on a formula contained in the “Adjustments in the Annual Hours” provision of the contract. The clause states:

ADJUSTMENTS IN ANNUAL HOURS: If the contracting officer and the contractor are unable to mutually agree on an adjustment in the annual hours for a service change the following formula will apply. Adjustments in the annual hours for casing and route operation will be computed using two constant factors. Multiply the number of additional boxes by 3.64 and the additional miles by 10.40. The sum of the two equals the new hours added to the contract.

Plaintiff acknowledges that she “did actually verify the hours and mileage to be correct” before contract award. She was servicing a route that included the awarded route well before she submitted her bid. She had ample opportunity to verify the route information, and she must have taken mileage and hours into account in fashioning her bid. Plaintiff cannot invoke the “Adjustments in Annual Hours” provision of the contract because no adjustments in annual hours are uncompensated. Changes in the route made after award and the initiation of performance were compensated.3 Plaintiff admits as much. The fact that the Government made an erroneous box count does not mandate an adjustment in hours, because plaintiff concedes that the hour estimate was correct.

Plaintiff relies on the fact that the number of boxes was not described as an “estimate” in the solicitation, as mileage and hours were. Plaintiffs preferred construction of the solicitation must be that the box total was the one figure provided by the Government upon which she could rely.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 Cont. Cas. Fed. 77,326, 41 Fed. Cl. 388, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 129, 1998 WL 338180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lindsay-v-united-states-uscfc-1998.