Standard Communications, Inc. v. United States

106 Fed. Cl. 165, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 982, 2012 WL 3341103
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedAugust 2, 2012
DocketNo. 11-530
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 106 Fed. Cl. 165 (Standard Communications, 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
Standard Communications, Inc. v. United States, 106 Fed. Cl. 165, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 982, 2012 WL 3341103 (uscfc 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

GEORGE W. MILLER, Judge.

On February 8, 2012, plaintiff, Standard Communications, Inc. (“Standard”), filed a Bill of Costs (docket entry 78) requesting $12,640.001 and a motion for attor[168]*168ney’s fees requesting $100,216.22 in fees and other expenses (docket entry 79) pursuant to Rule 54(d) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”) and the Equal Access to Justice Act (“EAJA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2412.2 Plaintiff seeks an award as a result of the Court’s November 9, 2011 decision partially granting plaintiffs motion for judgment on the administrative record and ordering tailored injunctive relief. Standard Commc’ns, Inc. v. United States, 101 Fed.Cl. 723, 745 (2011). Defendant, United States, filed a response to plaintiffs motions on March 30, 2012 (docket entry 82), and plaintiff filed a reply in support of its motion on April 13, 2012 (docket entry 83). For the reasons set forth below, the Court DENIES plaintiffs application for fees and expenses and GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART plaintiffs request for costs.

1. Background3

Plaintiff is a privately held, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (“SDVOSB”) that “provid[es] telecommunications integration, support services and financial systems support exclusively” to the Government. Standard Commc’ns, Inc., 101 Fed.Cl. at 726 (alteration in original) (quoting Administrative R. (“AR”) Tab 23, at 33422) (internal quotation marks omitted). Plaintiff submitted a proposal in response to the Department of Veterans Affairs (“DVA”) Request for Proposals (“Solicitation”) for its Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology (“T4”) Program. Id. Plaintiff was not awarded a contract, and it filed a post-award bid protest in the United States Court of Federal Claims. Id. at 726-27, 730-31. On November 9, 2011, this Court granted in part plaintiffs motion for judgment on the administrative record and ordered tailored injunc-tive relief in favor of plaintiff. See id. at 745^46. As a result of the Court’s Opinion and Order, plaintiff now requests $100,216.22 in attorney’s fees and expenses and, in the alternative, $12,640.00 in costs.

A. DVA’s Solicitation for the Th Program

On July 26, 2010, DVA issued a Solicitation for its T4 program, which sought proposals for “a total IT services solution encompassing, but not limited to software and IT products incidental to the solution, in conjunction with all services needed to integrate a system, network, or other IT service in order to meet [DVA’s] mission requirements.” Id. at 727 (alteration in original) (quoting AR Tab 3, at 163) (internal quotation marks omitted). The Solicitation guaranteed that at least four contracts would be awarded to SDVOSBs, like plaintiff, and at least three to Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (“VOSB”). Id. The Solicitation set forth five factors that would be used in evaluating an offeror’s proposal: (1) technical, (2) past performance, (3) veterans involvement, (4) small business participation commitment, and (5) price. The technical factor was considered the most important factor, and “criteria one through four were viewed as ‘significantly more important’ than criterion five, price.” Id. (quoting AR Tab 3, at 250). “The Solicitation explained that [a]ny awards to be made [would] be based on the best overall (i.e., best value) proposals that are determined to be the most beneficial to the Government.” Id. (first alteration in original) (quoting AR Tab 3, at 250) (internal quotation marks omitted).

On August 31, 2010, plaintiff submitted a timely proposal in response to DVA’s Solicitation for the T4 Program. Id. at 729. DVA preliminarily evaluated the 107 proposals it received in response to the T4 Solicitation and determined that plaintiffs was within the initial competitive range. Id. After receiving offerors’ responses to Items for Negotiations, DVA eliminated one offeror from further [169]*169consideration and established the final competitive range, which included plaintiff. Id. (citing AR Tab 204, at 79112).

To carry out the Solicitation’s guarantee that contracts would be awarded to at least four SDVOSBs and three VOSBs, DVA established a two-step evaluation process. Id. at 727. In the first step, DVA assessed the proposals and made awards in the competitive range without regard to the offerors’ size or status as an SDVOSB or VOSB. Id. (citing AR Tab 3, at 250). At this step, DVA selected nine awardees and plaintiff was not among them. Id. at 729. Because DVA’s step-one selection process did not result in awards to the guaranteed number of SDVOSBs and VOSBs (only one SDVOSB concern was selected), DVA evaluated the remaining proposals in a second step. Id. Eight SDVOSB/VOSB entities, including plaintiff, remained. Id. After the step-two evaluation was completed, six awardees were selected. Id. Plaintiff did not receive an award. Id.

Initially, the Source Selection Authority (“SSA”) discussed plaintiff’s proposal twice in its tradeoff analysis, specifically with regard to step two. Id. First, she compared plaintiffs proposal to the proposals of three other SDVOSB/VOSB concerns and concluded that, although the four proposals were “essentially equal in technical quality,” the proposals submitted by the three other offerors “represented] a better overall value to the Government” because they were lower in price. Id. (alteration in original) (quoting AR Tab 280, at 83099) (internal quotation marks omitted). Second, she compared plaintiffs proposal to three other offerors and determined that plaintiffs more expensive proposal did “not exhibit sufficient superiority in the non-Price factors to warrant award.” Id. at 729-30 (quoting AR Tab 270, at 83100) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Thereafter, DVA discovered that one of the step-two awardees did not qualify as an SDVOSB or VOSB concern and was ineligible to receive an award. Id. at 730. Consequently, DVA needed to make an additional award to one of the remaining SDVOSB/ VOSB offerors in the competitive range, which included plaintiff and one other. Id. In her tradeoff analysis, the SSA determined that, although plaintiffs proposal was technically superior, it was more expensive and “[did] not exhibit sufficient superiority in the non-Price factors to warrant an award.” Id. (alteration in original) (quoting AR Tab 280, at 83102) (internal quotation marks omitted). The SSA thus awarded the final contract to the other offeror that remained in the competitive range. Id.

B. Plaintiffs Post-Award Bid Protest

On August 24, 2011, plaintiff filed a complaint against the United States alleging that DVA improperly evaluated its proposal for the T4 Program and, in so doing, acted in a manner that was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and in violation of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) and the Solicitation. Id. at 726, 730. As relief, plaintiff requested that the Court issue an injunction against performance of the T4 contract or the contracts awarded in step two, require DVA to award a contract to plaintiff, or instruct DVA to reevaluate revised proposals and make new award determinations.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
106 Fed. Cl. 165, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 982, 2012 WL 3341103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/standard-communications-inc-v-united-states-uscfc-2012.