Martinez v. United States

48 Fed. Cl. 851, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 42, 2001 WL 282366
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMarch 20, 2001
DocketNo. 99-757C
StatusPublished
Cited by100 cases

This text of 48 Fed. Cl. 851 (Martinez 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
Martinez v. United States, 48 Fed. Cl. 851, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 42, 2001 WL 282366 (uscfc 2001).

Opinion

OPINION ON DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS

GIBSON, Senior Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff herein, Ms. Mercedes Martinez (“plaintiff’ or “Ms. Martinez”), is a real estate developer, whose case was transferred from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Miami) to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on September 8, 1999. Thereafter, on October 8, 1999, she filed a three-count complaint in this court against the United States through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD” or “defendant”) based on two separate theories grounded in contract, express and implied, and one theory grounded in implied-in-law contract, an equitable theory. The crux of plaintiffs allegations is that HUD breached a contract it had with plaintiff when it failed to authorize disbursements from a letter of credit under an outstanding completion assurance agreement, which was entered into by plaintiff, its mortgage lender, and the general construction contractor. The defendant (HUD) was not a signatory to this agreement, which was designed to insure completion of the related construction contract. HUD, however, did have limited involvement with the agreement, as will be explained fully hereinafter.

Defendant argues, in its motion to dismiss, that it was not in privity of contract, either expressly or impliedly, with plaintiff under any contract theory and, therefore, the complaint must be dismissed. Additionally, defendant argues that plaintiffs implied-in-law contract theory is an equitable issue not properly before this court. Lastly, defendant seeks dismissal of all counts based on the statute of limitations. For the reasons stated herein, the court orders the dismissal of Counts I and II on the grounds of lack of subject matter jurisdiction; the court also orders a transfer, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1631, of Count III, the equity count, back to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the proper forum to hear said count; and, finally, the court denies defendant’s motion to dismiss all three counts based on the statute of limitations.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff Ms. Martinez is a trustee and former general partner of Blue Ridge Development, Ltd. (“Blue Ridge” or, interchangeably, “plaintiff’), a dissolved Florida limited partnership which owned a piece of real property located in Florida known as “Casa del Lago” (“the property”). In order to finance the development of the property into a 384-unit, multifamily, moderate income apartment complex, Blue Ridge obtained a guaranteed loan of $17,800,000 from Professional Mortgage Company (“the Lender”) on April 10, 1987. The loan was guaranteed by HUD for certain consideration by plaintiff, including the proviso that the property would be available for moderate income residents.

To develop the unfinished property into a housing complex, Blue Ridge entered into a construction contract with Cipicorp Construction, Inc. (“the Contractor”) to serve as the general contractor. Pursuant to HUD regulations, the Contractor executed a Completion Assurance Agreement (“CAA”) on April 10, 1987, using a HUD approved form, with both Blue Ridge and the Lender. HUD was not a signatory to the CAA, which was designed to insure completion of the construction contract and to protect both Blue Ridge and the Lender in the event of the Contractor’s default. It is important to note, at this point, that the CAA is the pivotal document which is the focal point of the parties’ dispute.

Under the CAA, the Contractor promised to deliver a letter of credit in the amount of $2,914,316 (“letter of credit funds” or “CAA [854]*854funds”) to the Lender to be held in trust for purposes of funding the CAA. In other words, the letter of credit, under the CAA, was to be used to secure and indemnify the Lender, Blue Ridge, or their assigns for any expense, loss, or damage suffered or sustained as a result of any default by the Contractor. If such a default occurred, however, the CAA dictated that HUD had to approve any withdrawals against the letter of credit before said monies could be disbursed to the Lender and/or Blue Ridge.

The CAA further provided that the letter of credit funds, held in trust, were to be distributed in the following specific order: first, to the Contractor during the course of the construction as may be deemed necessary by HUD; second, to Blue Ridge such portion, as deemed necessary by HUD, to recover any overpayment to the Contractor; third, to the Contractor upon final endorsement by HUD that the construction was adequately completed; and finally, to the Lender, by HUD’s approval, in the event of a default by the Contractor, to be used by the Lender to indemnify the Lender and Blue Ridge for any loss, damage, or expense suffered by such default.

Additionally, and of great importance, the CAA allowed the Lender to assign its rights, along with Blue Ridge’s rights, to the letter of credit funds in the event of a default by the Contractor. The following language contained in said agreement expressed this provision:

[notwithstanding any of the provisions herein contained, it is expressly understood and agreed by all the parties thereto that in the event of a default by the Contractor in any of its obligations under the Construction Contract, the entire fund or balance remaining therein may, at the option of the Lender or the Commissioner [of HUD], be paid to the Commissioner [of HUD] together with an assignment of all rights hereunder granted to the Lender and the Owner [Blue Ridge or plaintiff],

CAA, April 10,1987 (emphasis added).

Furthermore, the CAA required that the Contractor include within all of its subcontracts a provision in which individual subcontractors agreed to waive their rights to file mechanics’ liens on the developing property. Apparently, the Contractor failed to do so with at least one subcontractor, who, on January 5, 1989, filed a mechanic’s lien against the property. Plaintiff alleges that this failure on the part of the Contractor is one of many defaults committed by it on the construction contract. Moreover, the filings in this court, and the record as transferred from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, indicate that the Contractor likely did default in its performance of the contract in other ways as well, including — failure to correct major defects in the construction, false representations in its requisitions, and receiving overpayments from the Lender based on entirely fraudulent statements. At this time, the court will not pass on the accuracy of these allegations and will assume, according to the law governing motions to dismiss, discussed infra, that they are true for the purposes of deciding this instant motion.

As a result of the Contractor’s alleged defaults, Blue Ridge made a demand on HUD, in January of 1989, to authorize the Lender to release completion assurance funds in the amount of approximately $650,000 for the repair of construction defects and to reimburse Blue Ridge for the overpayments made to the Contractor. HUD responded, by letter dated April 17, 1989, that it would not release any monies at that time but it would consider the request and make a decision at a later date. It is interesting to note that, while HUD has never paid plaintiff any portion of these monies, it has never, as far as the papers submitted in this case indicate, formally denied release of the completion assurance funds for the purposes stated above.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 Fed. Cl. 851, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 42, 2001 WL 282366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinez-v-united-states-uscfc-2001.