Manke Lumber Co. v. United States

44 Fed. Cl. 219, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 153, 1999 WL 447559
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJune 30, 1999
DocketNo. 800-87 C; Consolidated under No. 33-85C
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 44 Fed. Cl. 219 (Manke Lumber Co. 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
Manke Lumber Co. v. United States, 44 Fed. Cl. 219, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 153, 1999 WL 447559 (uscfc 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

BRUGGINK, Judge.

This matter is before the court on defendant's Motion to Dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1500 (1994) (hereafter “ § 1500”) Mt. Adams Veneer Co. and on Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment with respect to issues common to other cases in the Manke and Seaboard consolidated groups. Plaintiffs suit in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, brought under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 702, 703 (1994), sought to compel the United States Forest Service to accept plaintiffs buy-out application pursuant to the Federal Timber Contract Payment Modification Act (FTCPMA or “the Buy-Out Act”), P.L. 98-478, October 16, 1984, 98 Stat. 2213, 16 U.S.C. § 618 (1994). Plaintiff sought declaratory and injunctive relief in district court based on the statute. Plaintiffs suit in the United States Court of Federal Claims seeks judicial review, pursuant to the Contract Disputes Act of 1978(CDA), 41 U.S.C. §§ 609-13 (1994), of the Forest Service contracting officer’s decision finding that plaintiff had breached the contract and assessing damages. The case was transferred to this judge on February 4, 1999. Oral argument was held on April 19,1999.

Underlying plaintiffs complaint is the government’s claim for money damages which appears as a counterclaim. Plaintiff filed its suit here hoping to be completely relieved of liability for those damages. The operative facts in the two suits have some commonality in that both suits arise from the circumstances surrounding plaintiffs status as a purchaser of the Lynx and Siler 6 Forest Service Timber Sales. The court need not make a determination as to whether the operative facts in the two cases are the same, however, because the relief sought is different. In district court plaintiff sought to buyout its contracts pursuant to the Buy-Out Act. Here plaintiff claims it was entitled to a contract term adjustment, a remedy that would have left plaintiff fully liable under its contracts but would have extended the time for performance. As more fully explained below, because plaintiff sought different relief in these separate tribunals, plaintiffs claim here is not one “for or in respect to which” the plaintiff also had a suit pending in district court. Thus, plaintiff did not violate the jurisdictional bar of § 1500. Accordingly, defendant’s Motion to Dismiss is denied.

[221]*221For reasons set out below, plaintiffs Cross Motion for Summary Judgment is denied in part in accordance with the court’s earlier decision in Seaboard Limber v. United States, 41 Fed.Cl. 401 (1998),and with the Ninth Circuit decision in Hampton Tree Farms v. Yeutter, 956 F.2d 869 (9th Cir.1992). The government’s motion for summary judgment is granted as to liability. Plaintiffs defense pursuant to the decision in United States v. Axman, 234 U.S. 36, 34 S.Ct. 736, 58 L.Ed. 1198 (1914), however, survives the government’s Motion for Summary Judgment. Accordingly, the court will determine at trial whether changes in the resale contract were material, whether damages are due, and, if so, how to calculate damages.

FACTS

On September 12, 1978 plaintiff was awarded the Siler 6 Timber Sale Contract, No. 067661. The timber was situated in the Randale Ranger District of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the state of Washington. Under the terms of the contract plaintiff was to harvest, remove and purchase approximately 19,500 thousand board feet (MBF) of timber. The Siler 6 timber was about 22 miles from Mt. St. Helens which erupted in 1980, disrupting plaintiffs logging operations. During 1982 high interest rates led to a decline in residential and commercial construction. Lumber prices fell dramatically. The Siler 6 Contract expired uncompleted on September 17, 1987. Plaintiff built roads and cut, removed and paid for only 1,264 MBF of timber before the termination date. The Forest Service held plaintiff in breach and on January 23, 1987 assessed damages of $2,351,951.

Plaintiff denied breaching the contract. According to plaintiff, the Forest Service improperly denied both its application to buyout the contract and its application for an extension.

On February 3, 1987, plaintiff brought an action under the APA in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon challenging the Forest Service’s denial of Mt. Adams’ amended application to buy-out the Siler 6 Timber Sale contract under the FTCPMA. See Mt. Adams Veneer v. Lyng, Civ. No. 87-108-FR, 1987 WL 46898 (D.Or. 1987). The Regional Forester, Pacific Northwest Region, had rejected plaintiff’s application for buy-out on November 18,1985 on the grounds that Mt. Adams was an affiliate of each of the other two plaintiffs in that case, Publisher’s Forest Products Co. and Puget Sound Plywood, Inc. See FTCPMA, 16 U.S.C. § 618(a)(7)(B) (defining affiliate). Plaintiff appealed the Regional Forester’s decision to the Chief, Forest Service, on December 13, 1985 pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 211.18(c) (1985)1. In its district court complaint plaintiff sought a mandatory injunction requiring the Forest Service to accept plaintiffs buy-out application, accept tender of the buy-out payment, and release plaintiff from any further obligations or liabilities under the bought-out contracts. The .district court ruled that the Forest Service had properly denied Mt. Adams’ application. Mt. Adams appealed. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court. Mt. Adams Veneer v. United States, 896 F.2d 339 (9th Cir.1989).

On December 31, 1987,' while its appeal was pending in the Ninth Circuit, plaintiff filed a complaint in the Court of Federal Claims. In its Court of Federal Claims complaint plaintiff characterized the Forest Service’s resale of the contract as a repudiation and material breach by the government claiming that the contract should have been extended pursuant to the President’s MultiSale Extension Plan (MSEP).2 (Comp, at ¶ 5.) Plaintiff denies breaching the Siler 6 contract and disputes that it owes the United States any damages. (Comp, at ¶8.) Instead, plaintiff filed its Court of Federal Claims complaint to obtain de novo review of the Contracting Officer’s decision pursuant to [222]*222the CDA. Id. The government filed a counterclaim for damages resulting from plaintiffs alleged breach of contract. Plaintiffs defenses to the government’s counterclaim include frustration of purpose, impossibility, and commercial impracticability, all of which were rejected in other consolidated timber cases in Seaboard Lumber v. United States, 41 Fed.Cl. 401 (1998). Plaintiff also offers as a defense the previous material breach by the government based on its refusal to extend plaintiffs contract term.

Plaintiff joined others in a consolidated challenge to the constitutionality of the CDA, without success. Seaboard Lumber Co.

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Bluebook (online)
44 Fed. Cl. 219, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 153, 1999 WL 447559, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manke-lumber-co-v-united-states-uscfc-1999.