Trek Leasing, Inc. v. United States

62 Fed. Cl. 673, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 287, 2004 WL 2480768
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided October 20, 2004·No. No. 02-1345·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

OPINION

DAMICH, Chief Judge.

On February 5, 2004, Defendant filed its Motion for Summary Judgment for Lack of Standing (hereinafter “Def.’s Mot.”) under Rules 12(h)(3) and 56(b) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (hereinafter “RCFC”). Def.’s Mot. at 1. For the following reasons, Defendant’s motion is hereby DENIED.

I. Background

Plaintiff brought this action under 28 U.S.C. § 1498(b), seeking damages for actions of the United States Postal Service (hereinafter “USPS”), which Plaintiff claims constitute copyright infringement. Complaint for Copyright Infringement (hereinafter “Compl.”) Ttf 9, 12, at 3. On July 8, 1997, the United States (hereinafter “Defendant”) entered into a lease agreement (hereinafter “Lease”) with Trek Leasing, Inc. (hereinafter “Plaintiff’ or “Trek”), for the construction of a post office at Fort Defiance, Arizona. Def.’s Mot. at A12-A15; see Plaintiffs Response to Defendant’s Proposed Findings of Uncontroverted Fact (hereinafter “Pl.’s Resp. to DPFUF”) 111, at 1. This lease required T-ek to “hire a licensed ArchiteetyEn-gineer to adapt the design of the building to meet applicable local, state and national code requirements.” Def.’s Mot. at A27; Lease at C — 1; see Pl.’s Resp. to DPFUF 112, at 1.

Trek hired Marco DeFilippis (hereinafter “DeFilippis”) as principal architect and project manager for the Fort Defiance project. Compl. U19, at 4; PL’s Resp. to DPFUF U 3, at 2. The parties disagree as to Mr. DeFilip-pis’s employment status with Trek. Plaintiff argues that DeFilippis was a full-time employee, while Defendant claims that DeFilip-pis performed his work as an independent contractor whose employment was governed by American Institute of Architects Docu[676] ment B141, entitled “Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect” (hereinafter “AIA Form Agreement”). Defendant’s Response to Plaintiffs Proposed Findings of Uncontroverted Fact (hereinafter “Def.’s Resp. to PPFUF”) H1, at 1, 1113, at 6-7; see also Def.’s Mot. at A39. This document was signed by both DeFilippis and John Mancini (hereinafter “Mancini”), Trek’s president, on August 1, 1997. Id. According to Plaintiff, this form agreement was executed solely as a formality to document that a licensed architect was working on the project, which was allegedly required to obtain a loan to finance the project.1 Pl.’s Proposed Findings of Uncontroverted Fact (hereinafter “PPFUF”) 1114, at 4.

The Fort Defiance Post Office was ultimately completed and Defendant took possession of it on September 15, 1998. Compl. H17, at 4; Def.’s Mot. at A12. On October 7, 2002, Plaintiff filed this suit alleging that Defendant had infringed its copyrights for the architectural drawings and the architectural work2 related to the Fort Defiance post office by “affirmatively directing, authorizing, and paying for the erection” of a post office which was subsequently built in Kayenta, Arizona. Compl. 119, at 3, 111120-21, at 4-5. Defendant’s current motion claims that Plaintiff does not own the copyrights at issue and therefore does not have standing to sue. Def.’s Mot. at 2.

II. Standard of Review

Plaintiff must have a legally cognizable harm in order to have standing to sue. Paradise Creations, Inc. v. UV Sales, Inc., 315 F.3d 1304, 1308 (Fed.Cir.2003) (citing Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992)). Defendant’s motion alleges that Plaintiff possesses no standing to bring this suit because it is not the owner of the copyrighted architectural drawings or architectural work regarding the Fort Defiance Post Office, and therefore has suffered no harm. Def.’s Mot. at 2. Since standing is a jurisdictional requirement that must be satisfied for a case to proceed, if Plaintiff lacks standing, its complaint must be dismissed. Rite-Hite Corp. v. Kelley Co., 56 F.3d 1538, 1551 (Fed.Cir.1995).

Because Defendant believes that Plaintiff has no standing, it seeks summary judgment, and thus must demonstrate both the absence of genuine issues of material fact and entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A fact is considered material if it might affect the outcome of the suit. Id. at 248,106 S.Ct. 2505. An issue of material fact is deemed genuine if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury or trier of fact could return a verdict in favor of the non-moving party. Id. When examining the evidence, the trial court must resolve significant doubts about factual issues in favor of the non-movant. United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962). Here, Defendant will be entitled to summary judgment if it can show, as a matter of law, that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that Plaintiff is not the owner of the copyrights in question and thus has no standing to pursue this case.

III. Discussion

Defendant bases its motion on the AIA Form Agreement executed by DeFilippis and Mancini. Among the provisions of the agreement is Article 6.1, which states, in relation to the drawings and other plans, that “the Architect shall be deemed the author of these [677] documents and shall retain all common law, statutory and other reserved rights, including the copyright.” Def.’s Mot. at A46; AIA Form Agreement at 8.

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Trek Leasing, Inc. v. United States, 62 Fed. Cl. 673, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 287, 2004 WL 2480768 (uscfc 2004).

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