Solar Turbines, Inc. v. United States

35 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,618, 16 Cl. Ct. 304, 1989 U.S. Claims LEXIS 15, 1989 WL 6471
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJanuary 31, 1989
DocketNo. 53-88C
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 35 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,618 (Solar Turbines, Inc. 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
Solar Turbines, Inc. v. United States, 35 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,618, 16 Cl. Ct. 304, 1989 U.S. Claims LEXIS 15, 1989 WL 6471 (cc 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

ANDEWELT, Judge.

In this government contract action filed pursuant to the Contract Disputes Act (CDA), 41 U.S.C. § 601, et seq., plaintiff, Solar Turbines, Inc. (Solar), seeks review of certain decisions by the Department of the Navy’s (the Navy) contracting officer. The action is presently before the court on defendant’s motion to dismiss under RUSCC 12(c) alleging lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Because the pleadings are not yet closed, a motion under Rule 12(c) is premature.1 Defendant’s motion, therefore, will be treated as a motion seeking dismissal under RUSCC 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and under RUSCC 12(b)(4) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. For the reasons set forth herein, defendant’s motion is denied.

Facts2

The RACER Contract

The contract in dispute relates to the design and production of a Rankine Cycle [306]*306Energy Recovery (RACER) System for use on Navy vessels. The RACER system is intended to improve the fuel efficiency of vehicles that employ large gas turbine engines by using waste heat recovered from gas turbine engines to drive a steam turbine.

As originally awarded on September 30, 1981, the contract, No. N00024-81-C-5340 (the RACER contract), was limited to the preliminary design of a RACER system. The contract was subsequently modified, however, to provide for the full-scale engineering design, building, and testing of RACER prototypes.

Congress and the Navy placed RACER on an accelerated development schedule and decided to use RACER on the new Burke class guided missile destroyer (the DDG-51 class) then being designed. For Fiscal Year (FY) 1984, Congress authorized the Navy to spend approximately $40 million for RACER, $24 million over the Navy’s request, and specified that $24 million be directed “to ensure compatibility of the RACER system with all ships in the DDG-51 class, including the lead [i.e., first] ship.” However, despite the authorization, the Navy allegedly spent only $9 million in FY 1984 for RACER.

For FY 1985, Congress, again exceeding the Navy’s request, authorized $45 million in response to the Navy’s request for approximately $24 million. Congress required that the Navy spend the $45 million “only for continued development of the [RACER] system to ensure compatibility of the RACER system with all ships in the DDG-51 class, including the lead ship.” In addition, Congress prohibited the Navy from obligating or spending any of the $1.1739 billion Congress authorized to build the DDG-51 class in FY 1985 “until the Secretary of the Navy certifie[d] to [Congress] that the lead ship in that program is capable of being equipped with a [RACER] system without rearrangement of ship spaces and equipment or other major modification to the ship.” The Secretary of the Navy so notified Congress on December 21, 1984.

By October 19,1984, Solar’s contract had been modified a total of 34 times. The numerous modifications and changes in the contract scope increased Solar’s total estimated cost for completing contract development of RACER from approximately $34.2 million in 1982 to approximately $62.5 million as of November 1984.

On January 3, 1985, Solar and the Navy entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to convert the existing cost-plus-award fee contract into a cost-reimbursable type contract having a $55 million limitation on Navy liability. The MOU provided that Solar would design, fabricate, test, and deliver three RACER units of specified characteristics. In the event that Solar’s costs and fees reached the $55 million cap, Solar had two options. First, Solar had the unconditional right to require the Navy to terminate the contract for convenience and thereby eliminate any further obligation to develop, test, or deliver RACER. Second, in the alternative, Solar could elect to complete RACER at its own cost. The MOU was incorporated in the contract through General Contract Modification P00037 (P00037) on April 19, 1985. In addition to incorporating the MOU, P00037 provided the Navy with an unpriced option to have Solar design and manufacture two additional RACER units (units 4 and 5).

Solar continued work on RACER after P00037 went into effect, and ultimately received $55 million in payments. In early 1986, Solar requested additional funds to cover costs it had allegedly expended above $55 million. The parties held negotiations during April 1986, and on April 24, a senior Solar official and a Navy officer agreed to and initialed a “Proposed Mutual Termination Modification” (PMTM).

The PMTM provided that Solar would cease all contract work “as of the effective date of this contract modification,” except preparation of a settlement proposal under the termination clause of the contract. That settlement proposal could include, inter alia, costs incurred both prior and sub[307]*307sequent to the effective date of P00037. Payment of these costs would not be barred by the $55 million cap if the costs were found otherwise valid either by the contracting officer or under the disputes procedures in the RACER contract.

The PMTM apparently was not incorporated into the RACER contract by a contract modification. On May 8, 1986, the Navy’s Procurement Contracting Officer (PCO) unilaterally terminated the contract for convenience of the government. Notwithstanding the PMTM, under the heading “Government Liability,” the termination letter provides: “Pursuant to Clause H-20 ‘Ceiling Amount,’ which was added to the contract by Modification P00037, the Government’s total liability under the contract, including its liability in the event of a termination, shall not exceed $55 million.” Thereafter, on June 2, 1986, the Secretary of the Navy informed the House Armed Services Committee that “by mutual consent, the Navy and Solar terminated the RACER development Contract on 8 May [1986].”

Solar Files a Claim Seeking Additional Payment

In a November 14, 1986, letter to the Termination Contracting Officer (TCO), Solar requested payments from the Navy above the $55 million it had already received. The letter is 16 pages long and the attachments, including a memorandum of points and authorities, exceed 300 pages.

In its letter, Solar purported to present a “termination settlement proposal” of $66,-505.878 ($11,505,878 above the $55 million it had already received), which covered “termination for convenience costs together with profit to the date of termination, as well as associated settlement expenses.” In the course of the letter, Solar also requested $22,120,000 in addition to the $66,-505.878 to cover “anticipated profit on production.” Solar explained that “the termination constituted a breach of contract.” Accordingly, Solar included the “anticipated fees (profit) which it would have earned had the Navy honored rather than .breached its contract.” Solar took the position that payments in excess of the $55 million cap were appropriate because modification P00037 was invalid.

In the memorandum of points and authorities, Solar detailed the factual and legal basis for its request, including the basis for its breach of contract allegation and its allegation that P00037 was invalid. Solar alleged, in effect, that the Navy had determined not to use the RACER system on the DDG-51 class vessels but did not disclose this information to Solar.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,618, 16 Cl. Ct. 304, 1989 U.S. Claims LEXIS 15, 1989 WL 6471, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/solar-turbines-inc-v-united-states-cc-1989.