Lockheed Martin Corp. v. United States

70 Fed. Cl. 745, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 79, 2006 WL 979260
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMarch 29, 2006
DocketNo. 00-129 C
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 70 Fed. Cl. 745 (Lockheed Martin 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
Lockheed Martin Corp. v. United States, 70 Fed. Cl. 745, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 79, 2006 WL 979260 (uscfc 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

ALLEGRA, Judge.

This government contract case is before the court on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment.

I. Facts and Procedural History

In 1992, Lockheed Martin Corporation (plaintiff or Lockheed) formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Lockheed Information Technology Company (LITC), to provide centralized mainframe and supercomputer services to its various business segments. Toward this end, LITC acquired two Cray supercomputers and various IBM mainframes for use by other Lockheed subsidiaries. The predominant users of the CRAY computers were expected to be Lockheed Missiles and Space (LMSC), Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company (LASC) and Lockheed Advanced Development Company. At LMSC, the Cray computers were used exclusively in the performance of government contracts, while at LASC, they were used almost exclusively in the performance of government contracts or on independent research in support of government contracts.

For 1994 and 1995, the subsidiaries using the Cray supercomputers were charged under a method in which LITC allocated its costs by applying a fixed cost for CRAY computer resources to each operating company based upon each company’s annual forecasted hours for CRAY computing resources. In other words, plaintiff allocated supercomputer costs according to forecasts of supercomputer use, rather than actual use. Plaintiff refers to this as the “resource commitment” method of allocation.

In September 1994, the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) reviewed LITC’s compliance with the rules of the Cost Accounting Standards Board and issued two audit reports—Audit Report No. 3121-94J19200015 (Audit Report 15) and Audit Report No. 3121-94J19200016 (Audit Report 16). Audit Report 16 addressed the allocation of costs from LITC’s CRAY supercomputers and concluded that plaintiffs method violated [747]*747Cost Accounting Standard (CAS)1 418 because that standard recommends that the allocation of the costs be based on resource consumption, rather than forecasts or estimates. In critical regard, this report stated—

LITC has two CRAY computers whose annual costs are estimated at $10,057,189 for 1994. These costs are allocated to the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC), Advanced Development Company (LADC), and Aeronautical Systems Company (LASC) based on a beginning of year usage commitment by these divisions for wall clock hours and shared Computer Processing Units (CPU). The costs allocated using the beginning of the year usage commitment versus the costs allocated based on actual usages are significantly different for the various Lockheed divisions. The practice violates CAS 418.50(e)(1) which recommends that the allocation of the costs be based on resource consumption.

The audit report estimated that plaintiffs method resulted in increased costs to the government of $1,236,010. Audit Report 15 made similar observations and ultimately reached a similar conclusion regarding plaintiffs IBM mainframe computers. However, it did not provide a precise estimate of the cost impact of the alleged CAS violation, suggesting that the increases were insignificant.

In November 1994, James Rose, the Defense Corporate Executive (DCE) then assigned to Lockheed, notified plaintiffs DCAA auditor that, with respect to Audit Report 15, “[wjhile resource consumption is one method of allocation [of costs], it is not the only method____CAS 418 allows for other methods of allocation as long as the allocation is equitable and results in a distribution of costs that is fair and reasonable.” Rose further noted that the differences between plaintiff’s resource commitment method and an actual-usage method “were not significant,” and concluded that “LITC’s current practice of allocating cost meets the intent of CAS 418.” But, notably, Rose’s letter did not refer to Audit Letter 16,2 which, unlike Audit Letter 15, had asserted that plaintiffs method resulted in significantly increased costs to the government.

Subsequently, when Lockheed merged with Martin Marietta Corporation in March 1995, the former Lockheed Corporation headquarters were moved to Bethesda, Maryland, and Louis Becker replaced Rose as the DCE for Lockheed Martin. On May 31, 1996, following a CAS audit of LITC’s books, Becker wrote plaintiff that he had determined that Lockheed’s allocation method did not comply with CAS 418 because that standard “recommends that the allocation of the costs be based on resource consumption.” Unlike Rose’s earlier letter, this letter clearly relied upon Audit Letter 16, to which it referred explicitly.3 Following a lengthy exchange of correspondence, on June 17, 1997, Becker issued a final determination of noncompliance with CAS 418 (among other CAS sections), adding that “the cost impact [of noncomplianee] is material.” Becker’s letter required LITC to submit a cost impact proposal identifying “the cost impact of each separate CAS covered contract from the date of failure to comply, until the noncomplianee is corrected.” It is unclear whether such a proposal was ever submitted.

Sometime after September of 1995, but apparently before the end of the year, plaintiff disposed of two of its CRAY computers, a transaction it claims resulted in a loss in 1995 of $6.8 million. Documents provided by plaintiff indicate that, in late 1995, the two CRAY machines were sold and that another, smaller CRAY was leased back in the same [748]*748or a related transaction. Various other details of these transactions remain unclear.

There appears to be a dispute regarding plaintiffs actions following DCE Becker’s 1996 determination letter. Plaintiffs motion refers to an “agreement” that was “implemented” between Lockheed and the government under which plaintiff would “change its cost accounting practice” to conform to the government’s actual-cost method. Defendant, however, believes that no such agreement was ever reached, and that any modifications to plaintiffs accounting practices were implemented unilaterally by Lockheed.4 According to defendant, plaintiff made its “final settlement offer” on June 16, 1998, which offer was rejected by Becker the next day. A letter in the record indicates that in “late 1997,” the parties reached a “handshake agreement” intended to resolve the dispute and drafted a “Memorandum of Agreement” that “documented the fact that LMC had ultimately agreed to reallocate the CRAY costs per the DCAA report.” The letter indicates that the government subsequently “withdrew” the handshake agreement and memorandum “because the cost impact [of the reallocation] ... was unacceptable.” In any case, neither party contends that any such agreement was actually binding.

On March 16, 1999, DCE Becker issued a final contracting officer’s decision and demand for payment for “noncompliance with CAS 403 and 418 (CRAY Computers) ... for calendar year 1994 and 1995.” The decision noted that “computer costs were allocated to Government contracts on a basis that differed substantially from actual usage and/or the beneficial or causal relationship between supporting and receiving activities.” Estimates of use “were not revised, nor were variances proportionately allocated to the cost objectives.” Plaintiffs method, the decision concluded, “does not comply with CAS 403 or 418, and results in increased costs to the Government.” Defendant sought $2,669,534.

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Bluebook (online)
70 Fed. Cl. 745, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 79, 2006 WL 979260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lockheed-martin-corp-v-united-states-uscfc-2006.