Rust Constructors Inc. v. United States

49 Fed. Cl. 490, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 92, 2001 WL 584766
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMay 31, 2001
DocketNo. 00-582 C
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 49 Fed. Cl. 490 (Rust Constructors Inc. 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
Rust Constructors Inc. v. United States, 49 Fed. Cl. 490, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 92, 2001 WL 584766 (uscfc 2001).

Opinion

ORDER

MOODY R. TIDWELL, III, Senior Judge.

This post-award bid protest comes before the court on plaintiffs motion for summary judgment and defendant’s cross-motion for judgment upon the administrative record. Plaintiff, Rust Constructor, Inc. (Rust), contests the Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps or defendant) determination to perform work in-house, on grounds that the government violated applicable laws and regulations. Plaintiff seeks a permanent injunction enjoining the Corps to award the services sought in the solicitation to Rust as the best value to the government. For the reasons set forth below, the court denies plaintiffs motion for summary judgment and allows defendant’s motion for judgment upon the administrative record.

BACKGROUND

The facts are set forth in the Administrative Record filed with the court on November [492]*4926, 2000, and are summarized as follows. On June 14, 1999 the Corps issued Solicitation DACA41-98-R-0021 for competitive proposals from business offerors to enter into an agreement entitled “Public Works Operation and Maintenance Contract,” a general maintenance and repair contract for the grounds and facilities at Fort Riley, Kansas. The Solicitation required the government to evaluate the bids of all private sector offerors, in accordance with the procedures delineated in the Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Appendix AA, to determine which of these bidders presented the overall “Best Value” to the government. Price and other factors were to be considered in the selection process, and the government expressly reserved the rights to accept offers that were not the lowest in price, and to reject any or all offers. The Solicitation further provided that award of the contract could be made to the superior proposal, regardless of cost or price, if the price was determined to be reasonable. The initial phase of the selection process involved the ranking of various bidders against each other. Upon the completion of technical ratings and other considerations, one bidder would be selected. The private offeror thus selected would then compete in a cost competition against the government. The cost competition, as outlined in Section L of the Solicitation, would be used to determine who would provide actual property maintenance and repair services at Fort Riley. The focus of the cost competition would be on whether the private offeror or the government was the more economical provider of services. See Administrative Record (AR) at Tab 7.

The AR indicates that Office of Management and Budget, Performance of Commercial Activities,- Circular No. A-76 (August 4, 1983) (revised 1999) (OMB Circular A-76) and its Revised Supplemental Handbook, Performance of Commercial Activities, (March 1996) (updated 1999) (OMB Circular A-76 Supp.) applied to the Solicitation. Plaintiff submitted its initial proposal on December 10, 1999. See AR at Tab 21. Rust was the sole private sector offeror to submit a proposal in the first stage of the competition, so the government entered into price negotiations with plaintiff. See AR at Tab 23. Rust visited the site and, consequent to this visit and the previous negotiations, the government issued an amendment to the Solicitation. See AR at Tabs 25-26. Plaintiff submitted a revised proposal on March 7, 2000. See AR at Tab 28. After finding Rust’s proposed pricing too high, the government engaged in further negotiations with Rust. See AR at Tabs 29-33. As a result of these negotiations, plaintiff submitted a revised cost proposal on May 2, 2000. See AR at Tab 34. This last bid was accepted by the government as being the proposal giving the “Best Value” to the government. See AR at Tab 35.

Rust’s bid entered into competition with the government’s most efficient organization (MEO). The MEO “refers to the Government’s in-house organization to perform a commercial activity.” OMB Circular A-76 Supp. During the cost comparison, the government calculated plaintiff’s bid to exceed the MEO’s cost by $21, 476,825. See AR at Tabs 36-37. The government notified Rust of its decision to use in-house performance to fill the needs of Fort Riley on May 31, 2000. See AR at Tab 38.

On June 29, 2000, Rust filed an appeal with the United States Army Forces Command Administrative Appeals Board (FORSCOM AAB). Plaintiff protested that:

1) The Government proposal to retain the work in-house failed to address several significant areas of cost.

2) The Government proposal and proposed costs did not conform to the solicitation contract line items which rendered any side by side performance comparison and cost comparison meaningless.

3) The evaluation of the Government’s priced failed to consider any elements of “best value” as required by the Solicitation.

4) The evaluation of the Government’s price failed to determine in any meaningful way the realism of the Government’s price.

5) The Government’s price failed to include the cost of significant key personnel as required by solicitation.

6) In certain specific instances, the solicitation required the contractor to propose [493]*493specific manning levels and hours of operation; however, on the other hand, the Government price proposed cost based on a reduction of manning levels and/or reduced hours of operation inconsistent with the solicitation.

7) The evaluators improperly included one-time conversion costs for Plaintiff which were inconsistent with the requirements of the Solicitation and resulted in a significant increase to Rust in the cost comparison.

8) The Government’s price failed to acknowledge or consider cost added by amendments one through thirteen.

9) The Government failed to provide certain requested work load data which effected materially the price proposed by Rust.

AR at Tab 40.

On August 29, 2000, the FORSCOM AAB notified Rust of its decision that, while there were cost comparison errors, these errors were not of sufficient magnitude to change the decision of the initial cost comparison. See AR at Tab 48. Plaintiff filed its complaint before this court on September 20, 2000, requesting, inter alia, a permanent injunction enjoining defendant to award the services sought in the Solicitation to Rust as the “Best Value” to the government. Plaintiff filed for summary judgment on March 30, 2001, and defendant filed a cross-motion for judgment upon the administrative record on May 4, 2001.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review

Motions for judgement based upon the administrative record are reviewed under the same standard as motions for summary judgment. Rule 56.1(a) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims (RCFC); see also Richey v. United States, 44 Fed.Cl. 577, 581 (1999). Such motions are appropriate when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). As in the case at bar, when both parties enter dispositive motions bearing a summary judgment standard, each party bears its own burden to demonstrate the lack of genuine issue of material fact. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett,

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Bluebook (online)
49 Fed. Cl. 490, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 92, 2001 WL 584766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rust-constructors-inc-v-united-states-uscfc-2001.