NRG Co. v. United States

31 Fed. Cl. 659, 1994 U.S. Claims LEXIS 153, 1994 WL 420287
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided August 11, 1994·No. Nos. 671-86L, 672-86L·Published·Cited by 22 cases

Opinion

OPINION

ANDEWELT, Judge.

In these consolidated actions, plaintiffs, NRG Company, Mike T. Gustafson, William H. Lang, Bellford & Co., Cormorant Corp., Wesco Resources, Inc. (Wesco), and Thermal Energy, Inc. (Thermal), seek payments from the United States for damages they suffered as a result of the enactment of the Act of October 9, 1980, Pub.L. No. 96-401, 94 Stat. 1701 (1980) (the Cancellation Act), which, as of January 1, 1982, cancelled three mineral prospecting permits owned by plaintiffs. These permits entitled plaintiffs to explore for coal on specified lands on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. In an August 28, 1991, opinion, this court held that the United States is liable for a Fifth Amendment taking of plaintiffs’ property. NRG Co. v. United States, 24 Cl.Ct. 51 (1991) (NRG I). After conducting a trial on damages, in a February 22,1994, opinion, the court concluded that plaintiffs are entitled to recover “the total amount plaintiffs had previously paid to both the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe (the Tribe) to secure and renew their permits.” NRG Co. v. United States, 30 Fed.Cl. 460, 460-61 (1994) (NRG II). The issues remaining before the court are as follows: (1) whether the Assignment of Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3727, barred Wesco and Thermal from reassigning the instant permits to the original permit holders; (2) whether plaintiffs are entitled to “pretaking interest,” ie., (a) interest on their initial permit payments from the time plaintiffs made the payments to the time of the taking, or (b) interest on their renewal payments from June 1973, the date on which the BIA placed these payments in escrow, to the date of the taking; (3) determining the proper compensation due plaintiffs for defendant’s delay in paying plaintiffs for the taking of their permits; and (4) whether either party should be awarded costs or sanctions. The court will examine each of these issues in turn.

I.

The Assignment of Claims Act bars a party, under specified circumstances, from assigning a claim against the United States to another party.1 This statutory prohibition on the assignment of claims is subject to waiver by the United States. Tuftco Corp. v. United States, 222 Ct.Cl. 277, 285, 614 F.2d 740, 745 (1980) (citing Maffia v. United States, 143 Ct.Cl. 198, 203, 163 F.Supp. 859 (1958)).

Herein, to understand defendant’s argument that the Assignment of Claims Act barred the reassignment of the instant permits to the original permit holders, the court must first place defendant’s argument in a factual context. Plaintiffs NRG Company, Mike T. Gustafson, William H. Lang, Bell-ford & Co., and Cormorant Corp., were the original holders of the permits in issue. On June 19 and July 8, 1981, approximately six months before the Cancellation Act effected cancellation of the permits, the original permit holders executed “Assignment Agree[662] ments” with Thermal and Wesco, respectively. Pursuant to these agreements, Thermal and Wesco were to negotiate cancellation of the assigned permits in exchange for coal leases on other federal lands. Pursuant to Section 3(a) of the Cancellation Act, any such cancellation agreements had to be approved by the permit holders, the Tribe, and the Department of the Interior.

Under the “Assignment Agreements,” the original permit holders initially assigned the permits to Thermal and Wesco and received an up-front payment of $25,000 for each agreement. If Thermal and Wesco were able to negotiate satisfactory cancellation agreements, and thus receive in exchange for the cancellations coal leases on other federal lands, the original permit holders would receive, under each agreement, certain royalties including a minimum payment of $600,-000 per agreement. If Thermal and Wesco were unable to reach satisfactory cancellation agreements, the original permit holders could reacquire the permits. With respect to such possible reassignments, the “Assignment Agreements” provided that if Thermal and Wesco did not reach cancellation agreements by December 31, 1981, and had not waived certain conditions set forth in the agreements, “either [Thermal and] Wesco or the [original permit holders] may terminate this Agreement upon notice to the other party whereupon the obligations of [Thermal and] Wesco and the [original permit holders] hereunder shall be discharged, except that [Thermal and] Wesco shall execute and deliver a reassignment of the Permits to the [original permit holders].” Thermal and Wesco failed to negotiate satisfactory cancellation agreements and, after the Cancellation Act effected cancellation of the permits on January 1, 1982, Thermal and Wesco reassigned the permits to the original permit holders.

The complaints as originally filed included all of the present plaintiffs except Wesco and Thermal. Defendant moved to dismiss the action on the ground that Wesco and Thermal are indispensable parties to this action beeause they owned the permits at the time the permits were cancelled pursuant to the Cancellation Act. On June 12, 1990, the court granted a motion by plaintiffs for (1) joinder of Wesco and Thermal as parties to this action, and (2) entry of judgment to the effect that Wesco and Thermal have no interest in the instant permits or this litigation.

Defendant now contends that neither the original plaintiffs nor Wesco and Thermal can secure a monetary judgment herein. Defendant argues that the reassignments of the permits from Wesco and Thermal to the original permit holders after the permits were cancelled constitute assignments of claims against the United States that are invalid under the Assignment of Claims Act. Therefore, defendant argues, those plaintiffs in this action to whom Wesco and Thermal reassigned the permits, i.e., all of the original plaintiffs, were not eligible to bring the instant action and cannot secure a monetary judgment on their takings claim. Defendant further argues, in effect, that Wesco and Thermal also are barred from receiving a monetary judgment because this court granted plaintiffs’ motion for entry of judgment to the effect that Wesco and Thermal “have no [financial] interest” in this litigation. Defendant’s arguments must fail, however, because, as explained below, defendant waived the provisions of the Assignment of Claims Act and thus permitted an assignment of the instant takings claim against the United States from Wesco and Thermal to the original plaintiffs. Indeed, it was the existence of such a waiver that prompted the court’s June 12, 1990, allowance of plaintiffs’ motion for entry of judgment to the effect that Wesco and Thermal “have no [financial] interest” in this litigation.2

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NRG Co. v. United States, 31 Fed. Cl. 659, 1994 U.S. Claims LEXIS 153, 1994 WL 420287 (uscfc 1994).

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