Tidewater Contractors, Inc. v. United States

107 Fed. Cl. 779, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1571, 2012 WL 6115872
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedDecember 10, 2012
DocketNo. 12-261 C
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 107 Fed. Cl. 779 (Tidewater Contractors, 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
Tidewater Contractors, Inc. v. United States, 107 Fed. Cl. 779, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1571, 2012 WL 6115872 (uscfc 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

SWEENEY, Judge

Before the court are plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction and defendant’s motion to dismiss. In this case, plaintiff, Tidewater Contractors, Inc. (“Tidewater”), alleg-és that the government breached a contract with Tidewater involving a project to pave a road in Oregon, and seeks damages of $374,274, plus interest and attorney’s fees, and injunctive relief. Defendant moves, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”), to dismiss the complaint, asserting that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction because the contracting officer had not issued a decision pursuant to the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 (“CDA”), 41 U.S.C. § 7103(f)(2)(B) (Supp. V 2012), when Tidewater filed its complaint. Also before the court is plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction, in which plaintiff requests that the court enjoin defendant from transferring funds owed to Tidewater to Crook County, Oregon, and from allowing the county to perform a surface treatment on the road that it argues would contaminate the existing surface, thereby hindering or eliminating Tidewater’s ability to prove that it complied with contract specifications. These are the same demands that plaintiff makes in its request for permanent injunction in its complaint. For the reasons discussed below, defendant’s motion to dismiss is granted, and plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction is denied as moot.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

The United States, by and through the United States Department of Transportation, entered into a contract with Tidewater, Contract No. DTH70-09-C-00005, on approximately May 1, 2009, pursuant to which Tidewater would pave Beaver Creek Road in Crook County, Oregon (“contract”).1 Compl. ¶ 3. Plaintiff performed the work pursuant to the contract specifications. Id. ¶ 4. The specifications provided, amongst other things, that the paving would be sampled at locations as directed by defendant and tested by [781]*781plaintiff during the progress of the work. Id. ¶ 5. Multiple samples were required to be taken by various means, including core samples tested for density in plaintiff’s onsite lab. These test samples would later be verified at the Federal Highway Administration (“FHWA” or “agency”) lab in Vancouver, Washington. Id.

Plaintiffs core samples were tested immediately after they were taken at its onsite lab and delivered to defendant’s custody upon completion of the tests. Id. ¶ 6. Defendant’s representatives left the cores alongside the road at various times and failed to properly handle the core samples while they were in their care, custody, and control. Id. Defendant was required under the specifications to conduct verification testing on plaintiffs core samples during the progress of the work and tested only the first five samples during the time frame specified. Id. Well after plaintiff had completed the paving, defendant caused the remaining core samples to be shipped to its lab in Vancouver, Washington. Id. The cores were tested there, and some samples failed because they were damaged by improper handling and storage. Id.

Nonetheless, around August 18, 2011, the government issued a notice of substantial completion. Id. ¶ 8. The contracting officer, however, withheld $374,274 in payments due on plaintiffs invoices. Id. ¶ 7. According to plaintiff, defendant then decided to transfer contract funds to officials of Crook County so that the county officials could use the funds to pay for an asphalt surface treatment of the road. Id. ¶ 9. On February 24, 2012, Tidewater submitted a claim for payment to the FHWA for $377,174.74, in which it sought $374,273.74 for payment it was due for work performed and $2,901 for testing services that a third-party lab performed on core samples. App. A3-11. By certified letter dated March 26, 2012, agency representative Kristin Austin notified Tidewater that the contracting officer anticipated issuing a decision on its claim by September 1, 2012. App. A12.

On March 22, 2012, shortly after Tidewater filed its claim, an FHWA official, Marlene Marcellay, executed a reimbursable agreement, No. DTFH70-12-E00011, with Crook County, obligating $470,000 in agency funds to the county that were identified in a procurement request dated March 5, 2012 (“agreement”). Def.’s Ex. B. The purpose of the agreement was to resolve “issues between FHWA and [Crook] County,” and the county would flatten slopes, armor ditches, and perform a chip seal on the Bear Creek Road project. See id. ¶ 3; see also id. Attach. B. Plaintiff, in a declaration provided by Mark Mann, an engineer for Tidewater on the project, states that the government is transferring funds from Tidewater’s contract to Crook County to perform surface treatments on the road that would contaminate the existing pavement surface such that any further testing of the pavement would be not considered accurate. Mot. for Prelim. Inj., Mann Decl. ¶ 15.

On April 18, 2012, the government issued Contract Modification No. 045 (“contract modification”) that deobligated funds on Tidewater’s contract. Def.’s Ex. C. While the contract modification was not provided by the parties, the contracting officer describes the purpose of the modification in her declaration as follows:

2. On April 18, 2012, I executed Contract Modification (CM) No. 045 to Contract DTFH70-09-C-00005. The purpose of this Contract Modification was to de-obligate funding for unused quantities. At contract execution, funds are obligated to pay for the estimated bid quantities for the contract, together with fuel/asphalt escalation and available incentives. When performance on the contract is complete, the actual quantities, the cost of fuel/asphalt, and the presence or absence of incentives can be determined. If the actual quantities are less than the planned quantities, if fuel/asphalt prices have not risen to invoke the fuel escalation clause, and if incentives are not earned, the result is that substantial sums can be left on the contract that are not needed for contract purposes. The de-obligation of those funds allows those funds to be used for other purposes.
3. CM No. 045 de-obligated funds that were not used for fuel/asphalt escalation and for Quality Material and Pavement Smoothness incentives. CM No. 045 also [782]*782de-obligated funds that were not used for Aggregate base grading D in the Option schedule. The actual quantity used was 13,321.8 tons. The estimated contract quantity was 19,612. The 6290.2 tons listed on page 3 of CM No. 045 represents the difference between the actual and the estimated quantities. Finally, CM No. 045 de-obligated funds that were not used for Superpave pavement, 19mm nominal maximum size aggregate, 0.3 to <3 million ESAL, type III pavement roughness [described] in the Option schedule. The actual quantity was 4,322.8 tons. The estimated contract quantity was 6,423 tons. The 2100.2 tons listed on page 3 of CM No. 045 represents the difference between the actual and the estimated quantities. The total amount deducted from the contract constitutes the total of the amount obligated to cover these 5 items, and no more.

Id. ¶¶ 2-3.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
107 Fed. Cl. 779, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1571, 2012 WL 6115872, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tidewater-contractors-inc-v-united-states-uscfc-2012.