United States Fire Insurance v. United States

61 Fed. Cl. 494, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 197, 2004 WL 1763225
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJuly 30, 2004
DocketNo. 03-2811C
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 61 Fed. Cl. 494 (United States Fire 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 States Fire Insurance v. United States, 61 Fed. Cl. 494, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 197, 2004 WL 1763225 (uscfc 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

HORN, Judge.

FINDINGS OF FACT

The plaintiff, United States Fire Insurance Company (U.S. Fire), provides surety bonds for construction companies. The Miller Act, 40 U.S.C. § 3131 (2000), states that, on contracts over $100,000.00, a contractor performing “construction, alteration, or repair of any public building or public work of the Federal Government” must post two types of bonds. First, the contractor must post a “performance bond with a surety ... in an amount ... adequate, for the protection of the Government” against contractor defaults. 40 U.S.C. § 3131(b)(1). Second, the contractor must post a “payment bond with a surety ... for the protection of all persons supplying labor and material in carrying out the work .... ”40 U.S.C. § 3131(b)(2).

On October 26, 1995, the government awarded Tri-Gems a contract to perform construction work on a project at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, titled “Replace Overhead Power Distribution,” with a not-to-exceed price of $1,202,800.00. The parties later adjusted the contract, by change order, to a not-to-exceed price of $1,484,196.00. While U.S. Fire provided both performance and payment bonds for Tri-Gems on their construction work, only the performance bond is at issue before this court.

The Air Force made progress payments to Tri-Gems upon receipt of the contractor’s work invoices. On May 19, 1998, the Air Force Civil Engineering Office issued an interim report containing estimates that TriGems had been paid eighty-six percent of the contract value, while the project was only sixty percent completed. Furthermore, the Air Force Civil Engineering Office found that approximately one-third of the completed work needed to be repaired or reworked because of Tri-Gems’ poor workmanship.

On February 24, 1999, the Air Force terminated the contract with Tri-Gems for default. U.S. Fire alleges that the Air Force made improper payments to Tri-Gems of $394,911.79 for work not performed and $296,839.20 for work improperly performed, totaling $691,750.99. According to the plaintiff, the payments occurred both before and after the May 19, 1998, interim report that estimated Tri-Gems had been paid eighty-six percent of the contract value for less than sixty percent of the work.

On January 29, 2001, the Air Force entered into a takeover agreement with U.S. Fire, the surety, to complete the project. At the time when the takeover agreement was signed, the Air Force had already paid TriGems $1,285,429.39. After contract deductions of $36,484.00, the amount remaining on the $1,484,196.00 contract was identified in the takeover agreement as $162,282.61. U.S. Fire solicited bids to complete the work, but [496]*496also reserved the right to seek damages regarding the alleged overpayments to TriGems. In this regard, the takeover agreement between the Air Force and U.S. Fire stated, “U.S. Fire contends that it possesses ... claims against the Air Force ... not limited to overpayment to Tri Gems [sic], failure to mitigate damages and lack of cooperation and U.S. Fire intends to pursue its claims as against the Air Force . . . . [B]oth U.S. Fire and the Air Force reserv[e] all of their respective rights to any and all defenses and claims . . . . ”

U.S. Fire alleges that the Air Force depleted available contract funds by improperly making payments to Tri-Gems for improperly performed work and by making payments before work was completed. The surety alleges that the contract funds remaining after Tri-Gems’ default were insufficient because the defendant did not pay funds in proportion to the work actually completed, as U.S. Fire claims was a contract requirement. In the final decision denying the plaintiffs administrative claims, the contracting officer noted, however, that (1) under the contract, Tri-Gems, not the government, was responsible for ensuring that work was completed in accordance with the terms of the contract; (2) prior to receiving progress payments, Tri-Gems certified that the work was performed in accordance with the terms of the contract and (3) if it was discovered that the work was performed improperly, Tri-Gems (and thus U.S. Fire, as the surety) was required to correct the defective work without additional compensation. The plaintiff seeks compensatory damages arising from the alleged overpayment to Tri-Gems by the Air Force, which U.S. Fire asserts should have been retained as collateral for use by the surety upon the contractor’s default. U.S. Fire also seeks prejudgment interest and costs.

After completing the necessary repair and unfinished work following the default by TriGems, U.S. Fire submitted a claim to the Air Force contracting officer, asking for $930,-000.00 — the alleged cost of completion paid by U.S. Fire to the completion contractor, Eastern Construction & Electric, Inc. (Eastern).1 On April 30, 2003, the contracting officer denied the entire claim. The reasons given by the contracting officer for denying the claim were that (1) the claim was not based on the Contract Disputes Act, 41 U.S.C. § 601-613 (2000), and that at the time of the alleged overpayments, there was no contract between U.S. Fire and the government; (2) Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) clauses provide that the contractor and its surety are responsible for identifying and correcting defective work, without additional compensation; (3) while bidding out the completion contract, U.S. Fire erroneously relied on the May 19,1998, Air Force Civil Engineering Office interim report, issued by someone other than a contracting officer, which misreported conditions as being worse than they really were and (4) “other accounting deficiencies,” which suggest that the completion contractor may have made an unusually large profit.

DISCUSSION

The defendant has filed a motion requesting dismissal of U.S. Fire’s complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims (RCFC). Subject matter jurisdiction may be challenged at any time by the parties, by the court sua sponte, and even on appeal. Fanning, Phillips, Molnar v. West, 160 F.3d 717, 720 (Fed.Cir.1998) (quoting Booth v. United States, 990 F.2d 617, 620 (Fed.Cir.), reh’g denied (1993)); United States v. Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., 933 F.2d 996, 998 n. 1 (Fed.Cir.1991). A plaintiff must establish jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence. Reynolds v. Army and Air Force Exch. Serv., 846 F.2d 746, 748 (Fed.Cir.1988); Thomas v. United States, 56 Fed.Cl. 112, 115 (2003); Martinez v. United States, 48 Fed.Cl. 851, 857 (2001), aff'd in part, 281 F.3d 1376 [497]*497(Fed.Cir.), reh’g denied (2002); Bowen v. United States, 49 Fed.Cl. at 675; Vanalco, Inc. v. United States, 48 Fed.Cl. 68, 73 (2000); Alaska v. United States, 32 Fed.Cl. 689, 695 (1995), appeal dismissed, 86 F.3d 1178 (Fed.Cir.1996) (table).

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

Related

Nelson Construction Co. v. United States
79 Fed. Cl. 81 (Federal Claims, 2007)
United States Fire Insurance v. United States
78 Fed. Cl. 308 (Federal Claims, 2007)
Centers v. United States
71 Fed. Cl. 529 (Federal Claims, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
61 Fed. Cl. 494, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 197, 2004 WL 1763225, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-fire-insurance-v-united-states-uscfc-2004.