Orleans Dredging Co. v. United States

90 Ct. Cl. 360, 1940 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 105, 1940 WL 4013
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 5, 1940
DocketNo. 41952
StatusPublished

This text of 90 Ct. Cl. 360 (Orleans Dredging Co. 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
Orleans Dredging Co. v. United States, 90 Ct. Cl. 360, 1940 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 105, 1940 WL 4013 (cc 1940).

Opinion

Whaley, Chief Justice,

delivered the opinion of the Court:

This action involves the construction of a contract for the erection of setback levees on the east bank of the Mississippi River at two points known as Fitter and Yalewood. The former was 552 miles below Cairo and the latter 527 miles below Cairo and 93 miles down stream from Black Bayou. Both are situate in the Vicksburg Engineer District and were undertaken after the Jadwin plan for flood control of the Mississippi River in its alluvial valley was adopted by Congress on May 15,1928, 45 Stat. 534, 539.

This plan included the enlargement of existing levees at certain places by increasing the height or size and the construction of new levees at other places along the river. In accordance with the Jadwin plan a preliminary survey was made which included the Yalewood, Fitter, and Hagáman levees.

The Yalewood levee is situate on the east bank of the Mississippi River at a point where the river flowing in a northeasterly direction makes a rather sharp turn to the south and back to a southwesterly direction. From 1909 and later years the defendant spent large sums of money in revetment work along the east bank of the river which was then determined to be an eroding bank at this place.

The Fitter levee is situate on the east bank of the Mississippi River at a point where the river flowing in an easterly [386]*386direction makes a rather sharp turn to the south and back to a southwesterly direction. At this point also from 1909 and later years the defendant spent large sums of money in revetment work along the east bank of the river which was then determined to be eroding.

The setback levees involved in this suit were both on the left bank and east of the existing levees and were to be tied into the existing levees at each end.

During the Spring of 1929 the Mississippi River had one of its greatest floods and the water was at an extremely high level. The Jadwin plan, as adopted by Congress, contemplated the building of the levees from the upper part of the Mississippi River downward as shown in the preliminary survey in 1928.

On April 4, 1929, in pursuance of this plan, defendant issued an advance notice to prospective bidders advertising projects in which were included the Valewood and Fitter items. On May 17,1929, the United States Engineers’ Office at Vicksburg, Mississippi, issued an invitation for bids to be opened on June 17, 1929, for the Valewood and Fitter new lévees, the work to be completed in sixteen months.

The Valewood Levee extended from station 6628 to 6863+61, consisting of 2,500,000 cubic yards more or less, and the Fitter Levee extended from station 8080 + 40 to 8200+82 consisting of 1,500,000 cubic yards approximately. The material was to be procured from borrow pits to the riverside of the new location.

The plaintiff, having received both the notice of April 4, 1929, and the notification of May 17, 1929, entered its bid. When the bids were opened it was found that plaintiff was the lowest bidder for both the Fitter and the Valewood levees, having offered to do the work for 21 cents per cubic yard on Valewood and 25.75 cents per cubic yard on Fitter. The bids made by the plaintiff were unusually low because it contemplated the use of clamshell dredges with which it had been performing work in California. Clamshell dredges had never been generally used and, in fact, were even believed to be useless in the erection of levees on the Mississippi River heretofore.

[387]*387Plaintiff stated in its bid that it had “the following equipment available for prosecuting the work: Clamshell dredges with long boom, 10-yd. capacity bucket, dragline excavators. Hydraulic dredges, towboats, barges, and all other equipment necessary” and that this equipment was at that time located at New Orleans, Louisiana. After the bids had been opened plaintiff’s representatives conferred with the defendant at the oifice of the District Engineer and discussed the use of clamshell dredges on levee work.

On June 19, 1929, the plaintiff was informed that its bid would be accepted and by letter on July 3, 1929, received a formal notice from the District Engineer of its acceptance. The contract was enclosed for plaintiff’s signature and there was included in the formal contract a provision to the effect that the contract would have to be approved by the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army and plaintiff was requested to execute the contract.

On July 6,1929, the contract was duly signed by the plaintiff and returned to the District Engineer. On July 15,1929, plaintiff was notified by the District Engineer that the contract had been forwarded to the Chief of Engineers for approval and an early submission of plaintiff’s program of work was requested. The District Engineer also gave notice that “on account of the emergency character of the work” plaintiff would be required to start operations at each levee. Plaintiff notified defendant that it was prepared to proceed with the work as soon as orders were received to commence.

On August 5, 1929, the plaintiff was notified by wire that the contract had been approved on August 2,1929, and work would be required to commence on each levee without delay and plaintiff’s program of operations was again requested. Plaintiff was also notified by letter on the same day to commence work and the completion date of the contract was fixed as December 6,1930, being 16 months from the date of notification.

The contract contained provisions for making monthly payment on estimates of completed work and, at the discretion of the contracting officer, partial payments for incom-[388]*388píete embankments, and also that continuous lengths of levee of 500 linear feet might be accepted by the contracting officer when completed, the quantities named not to be varied more than 20 percent. The contracting officer was given the power to designate the exact location at which the work was to be prosecuted and, unless otherwise directed by the contracting officer, the embankment was to be started “full out to the slope stakes and be carried regularly up to the gross fill.” All the existing levees were required to be left intact unless the contracting officer directed otherwise.

The contracting officer was the District Engineer of the United States Army Engineer Corps.

In order to use the clamshell dredges the plaintiff on August 7, 1929, requested the contracting officer to modify the borrow-pit specifications to permit dredging to a depth of 12 feet in order to provide sufficient operative flotation for the use of the clamshell dredges. Without this increased depth in the borrow pits the use of the clamshell dredges would have been impracticable.

On August 21, 1929, this modification was made in the following terms:

Starting at 40 feet (edge of berme) from toe of new levee, borrow pits may be deepened on a slope of 1 on -2 down to a depth of 12 feet below natural surface and extending riverward on a level grade to that point where it intersects 1 on 25 pit slope, but the back of the pit shall not be within 350 feet of the center of the existing levee.
All material removed below the specified borrow pit slope of 1 on 25 must be replaced before the front levee is cut down at Fitter and before final payment is made at Yalewood.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
90 Ct. Cl. 360, 1940 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 105, 1940 WL 4013, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orleans-dredging-co-v-united-states-cc-1940.