The Security Bank & Trust Co. v. The United States

731 F.2d 861, 32 Cont. Cas. Fed. 72,352, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 14887
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedApril 5, 1984
DocketAppeal 83-1267
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 731 F.2d 861 (The Security Bank & Trust Co. v. The United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Security Bank & Trust Co. v. The United States, 731 F.2d 861, 32 Cont. Cas. Fed. 72,352, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 14887 (Fed. Cir. 1984).

Opinions

SKELTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a decision of the Claims Court in No. 268-80C, The Security Bank and Trust Co. v. U.S., decided June 6, 1983, 2 Cl.Ct. 646 (1983), in which the court held that the appellant Security Bank and Trust Co. is not entitled to recover on an alleged breach of contract claim. We affirm.

The Security Bank and Trust Co. of Law-ton, Oklahoma, (appellant or plaintiff, or the Bank) filed this suit to recover money damages from the United States for an alleged breach of contract by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in connection with the SBA’s section 8(a) program codified as 15 U.S.C. § 637(a) (1976). Under this program, various government contracts are set aside for socially or economically disadvantaged contractors. In carrying out the program, government agencies enter into contracts with the SBA for the performance of services or the furnishing of supplies, and the SBA, in turn, subcontracts with disadvantaged firms to perform the services or furnish the supplies involved in the prime contracts. The facts in the instant case are substantially as follows.

As part of the section 8(a) program in the State of Oklahoma, the Department of the Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on September 20, 1976, entered into contract No. DABT39-76-C-3164 (“the KP contract”) for the performance of food services at Fort Sill. On October 1, 1976, the SBA entered into subcontract No. SB6328(a)77C-700 (“the subcontract”) with Bluford Services Company (“Bluford Services”), a disadvantaged firm owned and operated by Foxie W. Bluford (“Mr. Bluford”), for the performance of the same services involved in the KP contract. The KP contract and subcontract were originally to run from October 1, 1976, to September 30,1977, but the term was later extended on three separate occasions, with the final termination date under the third extension being fixed as September 30, 1978.

Mr. Bluford, from the beginning of operations under the subcontract, suffered from a chronic lack of funds, and often had difficulty in covering his payroll. He survived “from payroll to payroll.”

Sometime in March 1977, two representatives from the SBA and Mr. Bluford went to the Bank and conferred with Perman Henderson (“Mr. Henderson”), who was a loan officer and vice president of the Bank, concerning the possibility of the Bank extending a line of credit to Mr. Bluford in the amount of $80,000, so that Mr. Bluford could meet his payroll in connection with the performance of the subcontract at Fort Sill. It was proposed that the collateral for any loans to be made under the line of credit would be an assignment to the Bank of the proceeds under the subcontract.

Mr. Henderson obtained a copy of Mr. Bluford’s financial statement and a history of what had taken place in connection with the performance of the subcontract. He then submitted to the Bank’s Discount Committee, with a favorable recommendation, an application from Mr. Bluford, d/b/a Bluford Services Company, for a line of credit in the amount of $80,000.

The Bank’s Discount Committee approved Mr. Bluford’s application, and an $80,000 line of credit was granted to Mr. [863]*863Bluford, d/b/a Bluford Services Company. As extended, the line of credit remained in effect until September 30, 1978, which was the final date of the term of the KP contract and subcontract, as fixed in the last contract extension.

As security for the line of credit previously mentioned, Mr. Bluford on March 31, 1977, executed an assignment to the Bank of the subcontract proceeds. The Bank sent a notice of the assignment to the Department of the Army at Fort Sill, and the assignment was acknowledged by the contracting officer on April 6, 1977, and by the Fort Sill Finance Office on May 13, 1977.

After obtaining the line of credit, it was Mr. Bluford’s practice to go to the Bank, talk to Mr. Henderson, ask for a loan in the amount of $80,000, and sign a promissory note for it. The money from the loan would be deposited in the payroll account of Bluford Services. This occurred twice a month, with an interval of approximately 15-17 days between notes. Mr. Bluford was supposed to pay off any pending loan before receiving a new one.

Before the assignment of March 31, 1977, was executed by Mr. Bluford, checks due under the subcontract were made payable to Bluford Services and were mailed by Fort Sill to Mr. Bluford. After the assignment became effective, checks due under the subcontract were made payable to Bluford Services in care of the Bank, and were mailed by Fort Sill to the Bank.

When a check was received by the Bank from Fort Sill, payable to Bluford Services in care of the Bank, Mr. Henderson deposited the proceeds of the check in Mr. Bluford’s payroll account, after deducting the amount due the Bank on the loan which the Bank had made for the period covered by the check. This customarily happened twice each month. Mr. Bluford would learn that a check had been received by the Bank because Mr. Henderson would call him on the telephone and inform him.

On or about February 25, 1978, by Modification No. 0025, the KP contract was modified to state in part as follows:

By mutual agreement, this contract can be terminated for convenience of the Government in the event a contract is awarded in IFB DABT39-77-B-0066, Cook and KP service, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, at any time prior to the expiration of this contract as extended through 30 September 1978, and the effective date for a termination for convenience of the Government of Contract DABT39-76-C3164 will be at the end of the month in which a new contract is awarded on IFB DABT39-77-B-0066.

On March 10, 1978, Robert K. Ball (“Mr. Ball”), who was then the Acting District Director of the SBA in the Oklahoma City District Office and the only official in that office with contracting authority, mailed to Mr. Henderson a copy of the contract modification quoted in the preceding paragraph. In a covering letter addressed to Mr. Henderson, Mr. Ball stated in part as follows:

An extension to this contract through September 30, 1978 has just been executed on Modification No. 0025 (copy attached) between Fort Sill, SBA and Bluford. This extension was issued due to the fact that Fort Sill has not been able to award a contract to a responsible bidder on their IFB issued by them in July, 1977. It is our opinion that an award will not be made on this within the remaining period. If one is made, SBA and Bluford will be given at least a 30-day notice. If this does come into effect, this office will immediately notify you of the termination date.
* * * Your bank has an assignment on this contract in which all monies are received at your bank prior to being received by Bluford. Bluford is paid twice a month, once on the 15th in which he receives $135,000 for this period, and at the close of the month in which his check is for over $100,000. Your records at the bank should indicate this. You may want to consider raising his line of credit to $100,000.

On or about August 24,1978, the Department of the Army notified Bluford Services and the SBA that the KP contract and the [864]*864subcontract would be terminated effective August 31, 1978.

Despite the promise contained in the SBA’s letter of March 10, 1978, neither the SBA nor Mr.

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The Security Bank & Trust Co. v. The United States
731 F.2d 861 (Federal Circuit, 1984)

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731 F.2d 861, 32 Cont. Cas. Fed. 72,352, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 14887, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-security-bank-trust-co-v-the-united-states-cafc-1984.