Texas National Bank v. United States

86 Fed. Cl. 403, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 58, 2009 WL 661330
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMarch 6, 2009
DocketNo. 07-355C
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 86 Fed. Cl. 403 (Texas National Bank 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
Texas National Bank v. United States, 86 Fed. Cl. 403, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 58, 2009 WL 661330 (uscfc 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

FIRESTONE, Judge.

Pending before the court is the motion of the United States (“government” or “defendant”) for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”). In this action, the plaintiff, Texas National Bank (“Texas National,” “the bank,” or “plaintiff”),1 claims that All Star Iron Works (“All Star”) assigned its rights to payment for work on a contract with the U.S. Customs Service, now Customs and Border Protection (“Customs” or “CBP”), to Texas National but that the government failed to make the payments to Texas National as required by the alleged assignment. There are two issues to be decided on summary judgment. First, the court must decide whether the government is bound by the alleged assignment to the plaintiff. Second, the court must decide whether portions of Texas National’s claim are barred by the six-year statute of limitations set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 2501 (2000).

For the reasons set forth below, the court finds that genuine issues of material fact preclude summary judgment on the question of whether the government is bound by the alleged assignment. Specifically, there are disputed issues of fact as to whether the government waived the requirements of the Anti-Assignment Acts, 41 U.S.C. § 15 (2000) (“Assignment of Contracts Act”) and 31 U.S.C. § 3727 (2000) (“Assignment of Claims Act”),2 by assenting to the assignment. The [406]*406court also finds that the statute of limitations in 28 U.S.C. § 2501 bars Texas National’s claim to monies paid to All Star before June 6, 2001, six years before this case was filed on June 6, 2007. Accordingly, the defendant’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED-IN-PART and DENIED-IN-PART.

BACKGROUND

I. Facts

The following facts are not disputed unless otherwise noted. On June 26, 1996, All Star was awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (“ID/IQ”) contract (“the contract”) with Customs to perform construction and repair jobs at various ports of entry in Texas. The Offer/Award Form stated that the contract would be “administered by”

U.S. Customs Service Field Procurement Services Group 6026 Lakeside Boulevard Indianapolis, Indiana 46278

and that “payment w[ould] be made by”

U.S. Customs Service National Finance Center 6026 Lakeside Boulevard Indianapolis, Indiana 46278[.]

Def.’s App. 1. On September 2,1998 and July 8, 1999, All Star was awarded the four delivery orders that are the subject of this lawsuit.3

In January 2000, Texas National extended a loan to All Star via a revolving line of credit to provide capital to All Star to finance its work on the four Customs delivery orders. On or about January 14, 2000, Alejandro Soto, Jr. (“Mr.Soto”), a principal of All Star, executed a document entitled “Assignment” purporting to assign its rights to payment for work performed under the subject delivery orders to Texas National. In a letter dated January 14, 2000, entitled “Notice of Assignment” and addressed to “U.S. Customs Service — RPC”4 at 6026 Lakeside Boulevard, Indianapolis, Indiana, Cheryl Bellamy (“Ms.Bellamy”), then-President/CEO of Texas National, stated:

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that monies due or to become due under the [four delivery orders under the contract] have been assigned to [Texas National] to the provisions of the Assignment of Claims Act....
A true copy of the instrument of assignment is attached hereto.
Payments due or to become due under such contract should be made to the As-signee.
[407]*407 Please return this letter signed by the person acknowledging receipt on behalf of the addressee to my attention. A copy is enclosed for your records.

Def.’s App. 13 (emphasis added) (“Notice of Assignment”). Though the Notice of Assignment indicated that a copy of the assignment instrument and a copy of the Notice of Assignment itself were enclosed, there is no written evidence of any copy of the assignment instrument or the Notice of Assignment being sent to Customs’ National Finance Center in Indianapolis.5

At the bottom of the Notice of Assignment was a section entitled “Authorized/Acknowledgment, U.S. Customs Service, RPC” (“Authorized/Acknowledgment”), which was signed by Mr. Soto of All Star and by William Mynatt (“Mr.Mynatt”), the administrative contracting officer (“ACO”), for “U.S. Customs.” Id. In a letter to Ms. Bellamy dated January 24, 2000, Mr. Mynatt stated: “Reference your request for acknowledgement of receipt for payments of Customs contracts awarded to Alejandro Soto[,] Jr. Please be advised the letter was forwarded to the Customs Chief Counsel for review. When legal approval is received the acknowl-edgement will be signed and forwarded.” Def.’s App. 15 (emphasis added).

Between March 1, 2000 and June 20, 2001, Customs made twelve payments by U.S. Treasury check to All Star for task orders related to the ID/IQ contract.6 The government does not dispute that some of the checks from the government to All Star included payments for multiple jobs. However, all of the subject checks from Customs to All Star were deposited into All Star’s account at Texas National.7 These twelve [408]*408payments from Customs to All Star totaled $487,847.24.

On March 22, 2001, Aaron Gonzalez (“Mr.Gonzalez”), Executive Vice-President of Texas National, visited the four construction sites related to the delivery orders that were the subject of the alleged assignment. The purpose of the visit was to investigate the progress of All Star’s work. It is not disputed that, at that time, Texas National did not have actual knowledge that All Star was receiving payments for its work at the four sites. However, it is also not disputed that Mr. Gonzalez confirmed during his site visit that All Star had performed some of the work and was entitled to be paid for it.

Texas National apparently learned that All Star was receiving the payments subject to the alleged assignment as a result of an audit of the bank by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) shortly before June 2001.8 On June 6, 2001, Mr. Gonzalez sent a letter and an email message to Mr. Mynatt, referencing the four delivery orders and the Notice of Assignment dated January 14, 2000. Mr. Gonzalez stated:

In [the Notice of Assignment] the government had agreed that all payments due or to become due on above contracts would be made to [Texas National]. We have seen copies of several checks that have been made directly to All Star Iron Works. At a minimum, checks should be made jointly to our Bank.
Please call us and inform us why this agreement has not been complied with. ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 Fed. Cl. 403, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 58, 2009 WL 661330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-national-bank-v-united-states-uscfc-2009.