Three S Consulting v. United States

104 Fed. Cl. 510, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 450, 2012 WL 1513009
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedApril 27, 2012
DocketNo. 10-583C
StatusPublished
Cited by95 cases

This text of 104 Fed. Cl. 510 (Three S Consulting 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
Three S Consulting v. United States, 104 Fed. Cl. 510, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 450, 2012 WL 1513009 (uscfc 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

FIRESTONE, Judge.

Plaintiff Three S Consulting, Inc. (“plaintiff’) initially filed this post-award bid protest under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491(b) (2006), on August 27, 2010. Plaintiff filed its Second Amended Complaint on September 19, 2011. Second Amended Compl. (“Compl.”), ECF No. 155. In its initial complaint, plaintiff alleged that defendant the United States (“the government”) violated the Competition in Contracting Act (“CICA”), 10 U.S.C. § 2304, in connection with its procurement of survey services for the Army’s Residential Communities Initiative (“RCI”), a military housing privatization program. Specifically, plaintiff alleged that the government improperly awarded the survey services contract to the Military Housing and Lodging Institute (“MHLI”) under a Federal Supply Schedule (“FSS”), Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (“MO-BIS”) survey services contract. Plaintiff charged that MHLI did not have all of the necessary services within its MOBIS contract and that the contract should have therefore been competitively bid.

After this lawsuit was filed, the contract with MHLI was terminated. Plaintiff filed its first and second amended complaints to challenge the actions taken by the Army program office after the termination of MHLI’s contract, and in particular, the actions of Mr. Ian Clark, the RCI liaison. Mr. Clark, plaintiff alleges, coordinated private agreements for the completion of the surveys between MHLI and the private-sector developers involved in the RCI program. Plaintiff argues that the actions of Mr. Clark were tantamount to the government acquiring survey services through an illegal sole source procurement in violation of CICA Plaintiffs second amended complaint seeks a judgment finding that the government acted arbitrarily, capriciously, and not in accordance with law in awarding the survey services contract to MHLI in the first instance and in then conducting an illegal sole source procurement by facilitating agreements between MHLI and the private developers after MHLI’s contract with the Army was terminated. Plaintiff further seeks a permanent injunction prohibiting the government from procuring future survey services without first providing notice to plaintiff. Finally, plaintiff seeks bid preparation costs and attorneys’ fees.1

[514]*514Now before the court are the parties’ motions for judgment on the administrative record.2 The government has also moved to dismiss plaintiff’s case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim under Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”). In its motion, the government argues that plaintiff lacks standing as an interested party to challenge the award to MHLI because plaintiff did not have a MOB IS contract at the close of bidding and therefore plaintiff was not eligible for the award. The government further argues that plaintiff does not have standing to challenge or alternatively has not stated a claim for relief in connection with the alleged illegal sole source procurement that followed the Army’s termination of MHLI’s contract. The government argues, inter alia, that the alleged actions of an individual RCI program liaison were not “procurement-related” activities and thus cannot serve as the basis for jurisdiction, or for stating a claim under 28 U.S.C. § 1491(b). The government also contends that plaintiff’s claims are moot because both the MHLI contract and the agreements between MHLI and the private developers have been terminated, and the government does not have any present plans to re-procure the survey services.

Plaintiff contends in response that it possesses standing, that its complaint states a claim upon which relief can be granted, and that it is entitled to judgment on the administrative record. Plaintiff also argues that its case is not moot because the government’s actions demonstrate that plaintiffs alleged violations of CICA can reasonably be expected to recur, and that, because of the nature of the relief claimed, the court can still fashion a useful remedy in this case.

After careful review of the motions and responses, for the reasons discussed below, the court GRANTS the government’s motion to dismiss.

I. BACKGROUND

A. RCI Program

The following facts taken from the pleadings and administrative record are not contested unless expressly noted. Under the authority granted to it by the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Act, 10 U.S.C. § 2871 et seq., the Army established the Residential Communities Initiative (“RCI”) housing privatization program. Under the RCI program, the Army works with private sector [515]*515investors and developers to improve military housing. In a typical privatized housing project under this program, the Army partners with a private-sector RCI partner to form a limited liability company or limited partnership in order to own, operate, finance, develop, and maintain family housing on a military installation. These corporations or partnerships are separate, independent entities which can act without day-to-day supervision or approval of the Secretary of the Army or his designees.3

The RCI program covers 44 military installations totaling nearly 86,000 privatized homes. To capture and report RCI resident attitudes and opinions about their housing privatization experience, the Army relies on a resident satisfaction survey of the RCI program. The results of these suiveys are included in the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Program Evaluation Plan Executive Report, prepared by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and provided to four Congressional defense committees on a semiannual basis. See Pl.’s Mot. at 12. The Army’s Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management (“OACSIM”), through its Directorate of Installation Services, Public Private Initiatives Division, oversees the RCI program. Mr. Ian S. Clark, OACSIM’s Deputy Chief, is the liaison between the RCI partners and the Army and oversaw the surveying at issue here.

B. The Request for Quotations

On November 4, 2009, Mr. Clark submitted a request to OACSIM’s procuring agency contracting officer, Ms. Cathey Robertson at the Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”), to make a one-time sole source award to MHLI for RCI survey seivices for 2010 that would begin in March and end in September of that year. On November 17, 2009, the contracting officer rejected the request to award a sole source contract to MHLI and determined that the request for surveys needed to be competitively bid. On March 2, 2010, the Army issued Request for Quotations (“RFQ”) Number W912DR-10-T-0039, Army Privatization Resident Satisfaction Survey, for the base year of 2010 and four additional option years.

The RFQ called for resident satisfaction survey seivices, including annual coordination and logistics, processing of survey questions, data collection, analysis reporting, and action planning between the OACSIM and the military facilities covered by the RCI program.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
104 Fed. Cl. 510, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 450, 2012 WL 1513009, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/three-s-consulting-v-united-states-uscfc-2012.