Lym v. United States

142 Ct. Cl. 143, 1958 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 129, 1958 WL 7402
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 7, 1958
DocketCong. No. 12-55
StatusPublished

This text of 142 Ct. Cl. 143 (Lym 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
Lym v. United States, 142 Ct. Cl. 143, 1958 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 129, 1958 WL 7402 (cc 1958).

Opinion

Littleton, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff’s claim was referred to the court pursuant to Senate Resolution No. 142, 84th Cong., 1st Sess., passed July 30, 1955, providing as follows:

Resolved, That the bill (S. 641) entitled “A bill for the relief of Joseph H. Lym, doing business as Lym Engineering Company”, now pending in the Senate, together with all the accompanying papers, is hereby referred to the Court of Claims; and the court shall proceed with the same in accordance with the provisions of sections 1492 and 2509 of title 28 of the United States Code and report to the Senate, at the earliest practicable date, giving such findings of fact and conclusions thereon as shall be sufficient to inform the Congress of the nature and character of the demand as a claim, legal, or equitable, against the United States and the amount, if any, legally or equitably due from the United States to the claimant.

The relief sought by plaintiff is the recovery of certain losses incurred in the performance of a contract between plaintiff and the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior. The contract work was commenced on or about April 23, 1945 and was scheduled for completion on August 1, 1945. It was not completed until February 6, 1946. The claimed losses were incurred-between August 14, 1945, and February 6,1946.

During the course of World War II the plaintiff performed .various contracts for the United States. On Feb[145]*145ruary 12,1945, while plaintiff was completing war contracts for the United States in Utah and Wyoming, he submitted his bid in the amount of $130,041.36 to the Bureau of Beclamation for the construction of an irrigation project near Tucumcari, New Mexico. The purpose of the project was to irrigate certain arid lands in New Mexico for war food production. There was a long irrigation canal on the north and west side of Tucumcari and the work involved the building of laterals and sublaterals from the canal and running down through the area to be irrigated. The project required the building of headgates, siphons, flumes and outlets over an area of approximately 24 square miles. On the usual building construction project, one supervisor can direct the work of 30 or 40 men. On the irrigation project in suit, however, it was necessary to use many small groups of laborers over a very wide area with a supervisor in charge of each small group. Plaintiff knew when he bid on the contract that he would need to employ a large force of skilled supervisory personnel if the project was to be completed August 1, 1945, in the 100 days allotted for completion and at the price bid. When plaintiff submitted his bid on February 12,1945, he had then in his employ three permanent supervisors consisting of one superintendent and two supervisory foremen. Plaintiff also had in his employ some 60 skilled workmen capable of supervising the small groups of unskilled laborers which would be required on the new project. It was plaintiff’s intention to take his supervisory force to the new project in New Mexico and to recruit from the Tucumcari area the required number of unskilled employees.

On about February 15, 1945, three days after submitting his bid on the irrigation project, plaintiff completed the other Government war contracts he then had in progress. Under the then existing rules of the War Manpower Commission, an employer was required to release his skilled labor force upon the completion of a contract, but he had the right to reemploy such skilled employees at any time within thirty days. At the expiration of thirty days, the employer had no right to rehire such skilled laborers.1 The thirty-day period [146]*146within which the plaintiff could rehire his skilled employees expired on March 15,1945, by which time the Tucumcari irrigation project contract had not yet been awarded to plaintiff. Knowing that his right to reemploy his skilled labor force would expire on March 15,1945, plaintiff had made frequent inquiry of the Bureau of Reclamation as to the status of his bid. Under the terms of the invitation to bid, the Bureau had 60 days,within which to accept or reject the bid. It appears likely that the Bureau would have accepted plaintiff’s bid within the 30 days specified by the War Manpower regulations if it had not been for the circumstance that the Bureau required War Production Board approval for the project as an integral part of the War Food Program. The Tucumcari irrigation project had been first authorized in 1938. It was halted in 1942 by the War Production Board, and in April 1944, it was approved by WPB for continuation under the War Food Program until April 1,1945. On March 13, 1945, the War Production Board extended the terminal date of approval from April 1, 1945, to March 31,1946, for the Tucumcari Project, and on March 19,1945, the irrigation contract was awarded to the plaintiff. By this time, however, plaintiff had lost his right to reemploy the 60 skilled employees, and when plaintiff received his notice to proceed on April 23,1945, he had available only his three permanent supervisors to aid him in recruiting and supervising the new labor force needed for the performance of the irrigation project in New Mexico.

The contract provided that performance thereunder must be completed in 100 calendar days, making the completion date August 1, 1945. If plaintiff had been able to use the 60 skilled employees who had been in his employ just prior to the award of this contract, he could have completed the contract by August 1, 1945, at a cost of approximately 10 percent below the contract figure of $130,041.63. Because of plaintiff’s inability to use his skilled supervisory force, and because of the poor quality of labor available in the Tucumcari area2 and the high rate of turnover, plaintiff [147]*147required 289 calendar days to complete performance and plaintiff’s contract costs far exceeded those which would otherwise have been incurred. At the completion of the contract on February 6,1946, the Government assessed liquidated damages against plaintiff for the 189 days of delay in the sum of $9,450.

Shortly after commencing work on the project in April 1945, plaintiff realized that because of the poor quality of labor and the lack of a skilled supervisory force, his costs were running far in excess of estimates. Accordingly, plaintiff applied to the Bureau of [Reclamation for an upward adjustment of his contract price. Under the provisions of the First War Powers Act, the Bureau had authority to make such an upward adjustment in the contract price without consideration if it determined that the conditions specified in that Act warranted it. Plaintiff’s application for First War Powers Act relief was not processed until after hostilities were terminated on August 14,1945, and his application for relief was finally denied on the ground that it could no longer be said that such relief would aid the Government in the prosecution of the war.

Upon completion of the contract, final payment was made. The plaintiff executed a release which was subject to plaintiff’s claim to recover the $9,450 withheld for liquidated damages and also $189,484.95 for increased costs incurred by plaintiff under the contract without fault or negligence on plaintiff’s part. The Bureau of Reclamation determined that part of the delay was due to an unforeseeable condition under Article 9 of the contract,3

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 Ct. Cl. 143, 1958 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 129, 1958 WL 7402, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lym-v-united-states-cc-1958.