TLT Construction Corp. v. United States

50 Fed. Cl. 212, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 172, 2001 WL 984736
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedAugust 28, 2001
DocketNo. 01-92C
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 50 Fed. Cl. 212 (TLT Construction Corp. 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
TLT Construction Corp. v. United States, 50 Fed. Cl. 212, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 172, 2001 WL 984736 (uscfc 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

SMITH, Senior Judge.

The congressional purpose behind the bid protest jurisdiction of this court is twofold. It is to protect the contractor from being arbitrarily treated, and thus encourage potential contractors to deal with the government. Its other purpose is to prevent government officials from exercising their contracting decisions in ways that reduce the government’s ability to get the best deal in their procurement. In this category the abuses of favoritism, bias, and personal benefit, are the concern of the statute. It is not the purpose of the law to judicialize the procurement decision, though to some extent this is the inevitable result of any judicial review. Which deal is best for the government is a decision that only an officer of the executive branch, in this case a contracting officer, can make. Courts should not overturn any award decision unless that award decision violates law or reason. In this case neither has been violated, and therefore the court must abstain from awarding injunc-tive relief on this record.

This bid protest action is before the court on Cross-Motions for Judgment on the Administrative Record. Plaintiff requests in-junctive relief and declaratory judgment, averring that prejudicial errors occurred during the selection process. Defendant claims that the contracting officer acted within the discretion given to her under the applicable statutes and that her conduct does not constitute an arbitrary or capricious act, or is otherwise in violation of the law. After considering the matter based on oral argument, the pleadings, the Administrative Record, and depositions, the court DENIES the plaintiff’s Motion for Judgment on the Administrative Record. The court GRANTS the defendant’s Cross-Motion for Judgment on the Administrative Record.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

This court was given authority to hear bid protest cases in 1996. See 28 U.S.C. § 1491(b), as amended by Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996, Pub.L. No. 104-320, Stat. 3870, 3874-74 (1996). The bid protest statute requires the court to apply the Administrative Procedure Act’s standard of review. See 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706 (1994). The proper standard is whether the agency’s action was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law based on the administrative record. See 5 U.S.C. § 702, 706(2)(A).

A successful bid protest bears a “heavy burden of showing either that (1) the procurement official’s decisions on matters committed primarily to his own discretion had no rational basis, or (2) the procurement procedure involved a clear and prejudicial violation of applicable statutes or regulations.” Kentron Hawaii, Ltd. v. Warner, 480 F.2d 1166, 1169 (D.C.Cir.1973). The Federal Circuit articulated a similar view when it said: “[T]o prevail in a protest, a protester must show not only a significant error in the procurement process, but also that the error prejudiced it.” Data General Corp. v. Johnson, 78 F.3d 1556, 1562 (Fed.Cir.1996).

[214]*214A Motion for Judgment on the Administrative Record is treated under the Rules of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (RCFC) as a motion for summary judgment. RCFC 56.1 Summary judgment is appropriate where there are no genuine issues as to any material fact. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 247, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

FACTS

The Army Corps of Engineers issued Request for Proposals No. DACA21-00-R-0030, D-Area Barracks Upgrade, Phase III, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on August 11, 2000 for the renovation of existing barracks for the 82nd Airborne Division over the next several years.

The solicitation indicated that the award “will be made to the technically acceptable lowest price offeror whose price was determined to be fair and reasonable without discussion of such offers” and that “[pjrices submitted will be evaluated only after determination of those offerors submitting acceptable technical proposals based on the GO/ NO-GO technical evaluation.” The technical factors for evaluation included in the solicitation were as follows: (1) Experience, (2) Past Performance, (3) Effectiveness of Management, and (4) Compliance with Safety Standards. All of these factors, and various sub-factors listed in the solicitation were required to be evaluated on a GO/NO-GO basis. Any bidder who received a NO-GO on any factor or sub-factor would be eliminated from the competition.

The solicitation identified the sources of information for each of the evaluation factors: (1) communication with the points of contact listed by the offeror; and/or (2) other data available to the Government pertinent to this work. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Construction Contractor Appraisal Support System (CCASS) was specifically cited in the solicitation as a source of information for evaluating bidders. According to the Army Corps, CCASS “is a centralized and automated data base performance evaluation information on DOD construction contractors.” US Army Corps of Engineers Regulation 415-1-17.

The solicitation included Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) 52.0020-4101 stating that “[pjrices submitted will be evaluated only after determination of those offerors submitting acceptable technical proposals based on the GO/NO-GO technical evaluation.” Invoking FAR clause 52.215 — 1(f)(4), the solicitation also notified offerors that the Army would award the contract without discussion. Finally, the solicitation indicated that “[pjrices submitted will be evaluated only after determination of those offerors submitting acceptable technical proposals based on the GO/NO-GO technical evaluation.”

TLT was the low-bidder out of five offer-ors who timely submitted a bid in response to the solicitation on September 11, 2000. The Army’s Technical Evaluation Teams (“TET”) evaluated the offers and found TLT to be technically unacceptable under the terms of the solicitation. In evaluating offers, the TET reviewed data from several sources, including but not limited to CCASS data, performance surveys and weekly reports.

On September 11, 2000, McCarty Corporation submitted its proposal on the project. McCarty Corporation was founded in 1964 and operated as a national firm working as a mechanical contractor and subsequently as a general contractor. Texas-Capital Contractors, Inc. (“Texas-Capital”) was founded in 1982 as a separate corporation. On January 1, 2001, Texas-Capital was merged into McCarty Corporation with McCarty Corporation as the survivor.

By letter dated December 20, 2000, the Army officially notified TLT of their elimination from award consideration for receiving an overall NO-GO rating. By letter dated December 21, 2000, the Contracting Officer (“CO”), Lucy J. Lanier, notified TLT that a contract award was being made under the solicitation to the McCarty Corporation.

TLT subsequently filed a post-award protest action with the General Accounting Office on January 8, 2001.

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Bluebook (online)
50 Fed. Cl. 212, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 172, 2001 WL 984736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tlt-construction-corp-v-united-states-uscfc-2001.