United Pacific Insurance v. United States

68 Fed. Cl. 152, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 289, 2005 WL 2466466
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedSeptember 28, 2005
DocketNo. 05-107C
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 68 Fed. Cl. 152 (United Pacific Insurance 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
United Pacific Insurance v. United States, 68 Fed. Cl. 152, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 289, 2005 WL 2466466 (uscfc 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

FIRESTONE, Judge.

This case comes before the court on a motion by the United States (“government”) to dismiss the complaint of the plaintiffs, United Pacific Insurance Company, Rebanee Insurance Company, and Rebanee National (hereinafter collectively referred to as “UPI” or “plaintiff’) under Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”). In this action, by the surety who completed performance for a defaulting government contractor, the plaintiff contends that the original construction contract was ibegal and that it is therefore entitled to recover the costs it incurred in completing the project under a variety of theories. The government contends that the complaint fails to state a claim. For the reasons that follow the government’s motion is GRANTED and the plaintiffs complaint must be DISMISSED.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise noted, the fobowing facts are taken from the plaintiffs complaint and have been accepted as true. On October 5, 1995, the government entered into a contract with Castle Abatement Corporation (“Castle”) in which Castle agreed to furnish ab labor, material, and equipment required to renovate three buildings at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. The contract amount was $3,152,174. The contract contained three line items for “construction costs” for each of the three buildings. As required by the contract and by the Miher Act, 40 U.S.C. §§ 270a-270d (1994) (current version at 40 U.S.C. §§ 3131-3134 (2000 & Supp.2002)), the plaintiff issued a performance bond in the penal sum of $3,152,174 and a labor and material payment bond in the penal sum of $1,576,087 to the government as obbgee.

On July 21, 1997, the government terminated Castle for default and made a demand to UPI under its performance bond. On August 5, 1997, the plaintiff and the government entered into a written takeover agreement whereby the plaintiff agreed to complete the remaining work under the contract' [154]*154between Castle and the government. The original contract was incorporated into the takeover agreement. UPI hired a contractor, Lattimer & Associates, to complete the work. The work was completed, and apparently the government took beneficial occupancy of one of the buildings in June 1998 and of the other two buildings in November 1998. In re Appeal of United Pac. Ins. Co., ASBCA No. 53051, 03-2 BCA ¶ 32,267, at 159,615, 2003 WL 21350374 (June 4, 2003). The plaintiff incurred a total of $3,525,757.25 in completing the contract, and has received $661,512.31 from the government.

On April 12, 2000, the plaintiff filed a Request for an Equitable Adjustment (“REA”) with the contracting officer, which included a claim that the contract, as awarded, was illegal, requesting that the contract be terminated for convenience and seeking its actual costs of performance less sums received. In total UPI sought $3,194,490.59. The contracting officer denied the claim on September 12, 2000 and the plaintiff filed an appeal at the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (“ASBCA” or “Board”) on September 21, 2000.

The Board issued a decision on July 20, 2001 holding that UPI did not have standing to assert Castle’s pre-takeover illegal contract claims. In re United Pac. Ins. Co., ASBCA No. 53051, 01-2 BCA ¶ 31,527, at 155,640, 2001 WL 865380 (July 20, 2001). Then, following the Federal Circuit’s decision in Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. England, 313 F.3d 1344 (Fed.Cir.2002), which held that the Contract Disputes Act, 41 U.S.C. §§ 601-613 (2000), did not give the Contract Boards jurisdiction over equitable subrogation claims based on events that took place before the takeover agreement, the Board issued another decision on reconsideration rejecting UPI’s claim on jurisdictional grounds. The Board held that it did not have jurisdiction over the plaintiffs claims because the plaintiff was not a “contractor” under the Contract Disputes Act for claims based on pretakeover agreement events. United Pacific, 03-2 BCA ¶ 32,267, at 159,622. The Board also held that it did not have jurisdiction over the plaintiffs illegal contract claim. Id. at 159,624.

UPI appealed, and the Federal Circuit affirmed, holding that the Board did not have jurisdiction over any of the plaintiffs claims that were based on events that occurred prior to the plaintiff entering into a takeover agreement with the government, including UPI’s illegal contract claims. United Pac. Ins. Co. v. Roche, 380 F.3d 1352, 1356 (Fed.Cir.2004). Specifically, the Federal Circuit stated, “Assuming without deciding that a surety has standing to challenge the validity of a completed contract, on its face United’s claim appears covered by Fireman’s Fund and therefore beyond the Board’s jurisdiction.” Id. at 1357.

After the Federal Circuit issued its decision, UPI filed the present complaint in this court on January 12, 2005. The complaint alleges that the underlying contract between the government and Castle was illegal. The complaint states that work was illegally funded as Operations and Maintenance (“O & M”) work, when it was “obvious construction work.” Compl. ¶23. The plaintiff charges that the Air Force’s use of O & M funds to fund new construction violated 10 U.S.C. § 2811. The complaint asserts that new military construction projects must be approved and funded by Congress and that this project had not been approved by Congress and thus the contract was illegal. UPI also alleges that the government illegally split the project into three projects, one for each building, in order to stay below the $300,000 ceiling for funding military construction projects with O & M funds. 10 U.S.C. § 2805(e)(1) (1994 & Supp.1995). The plaintiff alleges that the three projects were, in fact, a single construction project. UPI alleges that had it known the contract between Castle and the government was illegal based on the violations of the above-noted statutory provisions, it would not have provided the bonds for the contract or entered into the takeover agreement, committing itself to complete the performance of the contract.

The plaintiff claims that because the original contract was illegal, the contract is voidable and therefore the plaintiff is entitled to have the takeover agreement terminated for convenience and to recover on a quantum [155]*155meruit basis.1 In the alternative the plaintiff claims that if the claim belongs to Castle, then UPI is equitably subrogated to the rights of Castle, and accordingly may bring Castle’s claim for quantum meruit damages. UPI also argues that if the contract is void ab initio due to the illegality, then it is entitled to recover on a quantum meruit basis pursuant to an implied in fact contract.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
68 Fed. Cl. 152, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 289, 2005 WL 2466466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-pacific-insurance-v-united-states-uscfc-2005.