Minburn Technology Group, LLC v. United States

United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided August 27, 2026·No. 26-861·Published

Opinion

In the United States Court of Federal Claims No. 26-861

(Filed Under Seal: August 17, 2026)

Reissued: August 27, 2026∗

)

MINBURN TECHNOLOGY GROUP LLC, )

)

Plaintiff, )

)

v. )

)

UNITED STATES, )

)

Defendant, )

) )

DELL FEDERAL SYSTEMS L.P., )

)

Defendant-Intervenor )

)

Alexander B. Ginsberg, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff. With him on the briefs were Robert C. Starling and Noah B. Curtiss.

Tayna B. Koenig, Senior Trial Counsel, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Washington, D.C., for defendant. With her on the brief was Ana F. Smith, Department of the Navy, Information Warfare Center Pacific, and J. Eric Anderson, Office of Intellectual Property, 36000, Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific.

Craig Alan Holman, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, Washington D.C., for defendant- intervenor. With him on the brief were Thomas A. Pettit, Roee Talmor, Adrienne Jackson, and Kristina Lorch.

OPINION AND ORDER

SMITH, Senior Judge

In this post-award bid protest, plaintiff Minburn Technology Group, LLC (“Minburn”)

challenges, in part, the United States Navy’s (“the Navy”) award of a Federal Supply Schedule (“FSS”) contract for the procurement of Microsoft products and services to defendant-intervenor Dell Federal Systems L.P. (“Dell Federal”). See generally Second Am. Compl., ECF No. 40. The

An unredacted version of this Opinion was filed on August 17, 2026. See ECF No. 47. The Court provided the parties with the opportunity to submit proposed redactions. See Joint Status Report, ECF No. 52. The parties confirmed that the full Opinion may be filed without redactions.

parties agreed to resolve this matter on the administrative record. See Scheduling Order, ECF No. 28. Minburn now moves to supplement the record and for the Court to take judicial notice of certain facts and documents. Pl.’s Mot. to Supp. the Administrative R. & for Judicial Notice, ECF No. 33. While responding to Minburn’s motion, Dell Federal moved to dismiss Counts II and III in Minburn’s second amended complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”). See Intervenor’s Resp. Br. and Mot. to Dismiss, ECF No. 44. For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS-IN-PART and DENIES-IN-PART Minburn’s motion, ECF No. 33. The Court also DENIES Dell-Federal’s motion to dismiss, ECF No. 44.

I. BACKGROUND

On May 5, 2026, the Navy issued Solicitation No. N66001-26-Q-0051-0002 that sought a comprehensive blanket-purchase order agreement (“BPA”) under the FSS program for reselling Microsoft software licenses, cloud subscriptions, and other products. See Administrative R. (“AR”) at 573. Referred to as Enterprise Software Agreement (“ESA”) II, the BPA features five annual ordering periods that would run until April 30, 2031. Id. at 549. ESA II would run under the General Service Administration’s (“GSA”) FSS program to Multiple Award Schedule (“MAS”) contract holders. Id. at 549.1

Relevant to the parties’ motions, Solicitation Attachment 2 lists all Microsoft products under ESA II. See Tab 11b. The Solicitation instructed offerors that “[a]ll products offered must be under your GSA MAS” contract. Id. at 573. To demonstrate product inclusion on their GSA schedule, resellers were required to submit “a copy of your GSA approved Price List.” Id. As an eligibility criterion for award, the Navy mandated that all “Microsoft products listed under Attachment #2 . . . must be on the Reseller’s FSS contract.” Id. at 574. In addition, offerors would certify that “all products listed in Attachment 2 are currently included on your GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Contract.” Id. at 570.

In its proposal, Dell Federal attached its “Authorized Federal Supply Schedule Pricelist.”

See id. at 635. Within its FSS pricelist, Dell Federal represented that its Cloud-Computing Services pricelist “consists of multiple line items. It will be provided via email upon request.” Id. at 705. The company’s Third Party Product pricelist stated a similar instruction, noting thousands of line items existed on the list. Id. at 712. Other documents submitted with Dell Federal’s proposal included its “GSA Microsoft Price List” and “GSA Mapping” tool. See generally Tabs 15g, 15h. Furthermore, Dell Federal supplied a “Letter of Authorization” that confirmed Dell Corp. “is an authorized reseller of Microsoft” software products and cloud services. See id. at 756. At the same time, Dell Federal included a letter confirming its status as an “authorized Licensing Solution Partner” (“LSP”) for the Solicitation. Id. at 758.

After a brief competition, the Navy evaluated offers and awarded Dell Federal ESA II on May 14, 2026. See id. at 1944.

1 “The Federal Supply Schedule program is also known as the GSA Schedules Program or the Multiple Award Schedule Program.” See 48 C.F.R. § 8.402(a). GSA manages and directs the FSS program to simplify “obtaining commercial supplies and commercial services at prices associated with volume buying.” Id.

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In June 2026, Minburn brought suit alleging, among other things, that the Navy arbitrarily and capriciously evaluated Dell Federal’s offer. See Compl. After defendant shared the administrative record, Minburn filed its motion to supplement the administrative record and for judicial notice on July 27, 2026. ECF No. 33. Minburn also sought an expedited briefing schedule to resolve its motion which the Court granted. See Order Granting-In-Part and Denying-In-Part Mot. for Expedited Briefing, ECF No. 36. That same day, Minburn filed its first amended complaint which added a material misrepresentation claim levied against Dell Federal. See First Am. Compl., ECF No. 31 at ¶¶ 179–90.

A week later, Minburn moved for leave to file a second amended complaint which the Court granted. Mot. for Leave to File Second Am. Compl., ECF No. 38. Thereafter, defendant filed its response to Minburn’s motion to supplement on August 6, 2026. See Def.’s Resp. Br., ECF No. 43. Dell Federal followed with its own response brief and also moved to dismiss Counts II and III in Minburn’s operative complaint under RCFC 12(b)(6). See ECF No. 44. Minburn then filed its reply in support of its own motion and a response to Dell Federal’s motion to dismiss on August 10, 2026. See Pl.’s Reply in Support & Resp. Br. to Mot. to Dismiss, ECF No. 45. Defendant did not file any responsive briefing in support of Dell Federal’s motion to dismiss.

III. LEGAL STANDARDS

A. Motion to Supplement the Administrative Record.

In bid protest actions, “the focal point for judicial review should be the administrative record already in existence, not some new record made initially in the reviewing court.” Axiom Res. Mgmt., Inc. v. United States, 564 F.3d 1374, 1379 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (emphasis in original) (quoting Camp v. Pitts, 411 U.S. 138, 142 (1973)). However, a party may move to supplement the record to include materials “that were not considered by the agency” but “are nevertheless necessary to permit the Court’s full evaluation of the agency’s decision.” Can Softtech, Inc. v. United States, No. 24-1009, 2026 WL 1288730, at *8 (Fed. Cl. Apr. 27, 2026). As a general rule, Courts limit the introduction of extra-record evidence to avoid turning APA review into de novo review. Axiom, 564 F.3d at 1380 (citing Murakami v. United States, 46 Fed. Cl. 731,735 (2000), aff’d, 398 F.3d 1342 (Fed. Cir. 2005)). Therefore, supplementing the administrative record is appropriate when the existing record would “frustrate effective judicial review.” See id.

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