United States v. Bollinger Shipyards, Inc.

979 F. Supp. 2d 721, 2013 WL 5720340
District Court, E.D. Louisiana·Decided October 21, 2013·No. Civil Action No. 12-920·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

ORDER AND REASONS

SARAH S. VANCE, District Judge.

Before the Court is defendant Bollinger’s1 motion to dismiss the United States’ First Amended Complaint.2 For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS Bollinger’s motion to dismiss.

I. Background

A. Procedural History

On July 29, 2011, the United States filed its original complaint against Bollinger based on allegations that “Bollinger knowingly misled the Coast Guard to enter into a contract for the lengthening of Coast Guard cutters by falsifying data relating to the structural strength of the converted vessels.”3 The complaint alleged five causes of action: (1) knowingly presenting false or fraudulent claims for payment or approval to the United States in violation of the False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C.A. § 3729(a)(1)(A); (2) knowingly making false records or statements material to false or fraudulent claims for payment by the United States in violation of the FCA, § 3729(a)(1)(B); (3) common law fraud; (4) negligent misrepresentation; and (5) unjust enrichment.4 Bollinger filed a motion to dismiss, which the Court granted.5 The Court dismissed all of the claims but granted the United States leave to amend its FCA and common law fraud claims.6

The United States then filed its First Amended Complaint, alleging FCA violations, common law fraud and unjust enrichment.7 As stated, however, in dis[724]*724missing the original complaint the Court granted the United States leave to amend only its FCA and common law fraud claims.8 Accordingly, its unjust enrichment claim does not persist. This order proceeds to discuss only the United States’ FCA and common law fraud claims.

In the First Amended Complaint, the United States no longer advances a theory of fraud in the inducement of the contract. Rather, it now relies exclusively on a theory of fraud in the inducement of acceptance of delivery and of payment.9 The factual allegations in the First Amended Complaint are substantially similar to those in the original complaint, although the amended complaint includes some new allegations seeking to support the claim that Bollinger knowingly generated and presented false measurements to the Coast Guard. Bollinger moved to dismiss the First Amended Complaint in its entirety for failure to state a claim.10

B. Factual Allegations

The United States’ First Amended Complaint alleges the following facts. In 1999, the Coast Guard inaugurated its Deepwater program to replace its fleet of water vessels, aircraft and electronics systems.11 Integrated Coast Guard Systems (“ICGS”) competed to serve as lead contractor of the program.12 ICGS submitted a proposal that included modification of existing 110-foot cutters (patrol boats) into 123-foot cutters.13 The proposal provided that ICGS would subcontract a portion of the conversion work to Northrup Gruman Ship Systems (“NGSS”).14 NGSS in turn would subcontract a substantial portion of the work to Bollinger, which had built the original fleet of 110-foot cutters.15

On September 27, 2000, the Coast Guard notified ICGS and Bollinger “that lengthening the vessel will increase primary stress in the hull girder, but that no analysis has been performed to investigate if the increase in hull girder bending moment will be acceptable.”16 The Coast Guard informed ICGS and Bollinger that the sources of its concern included the “significant hull degradation” of the 110-foot cutters.17

In response to the Coast Guard’s concerns, Bollinger prepared a longitudinal strength analysis.18 Bollinger’s chief naval architect, Robert Riviere, stated internally that the 123-foot design exceeded American Bureau of Shipping (“ABS”) standards by a factor greater than two.19 On October 3, 2000, Bollinger submitted to the Coast Guard its analysis, indicating that the design satisfied ABS standards.20 Specifically, Bollinger stated that “the required section modulus [a measure of longitudinal strength] is 3113 [cubic inches] and the actual section modulus is 7152 [cubic inches].”21 Bollinger obtained the [725]*725figure of 7,152 cubic inches using thicker hull plating in its calculation than actually existed in the 110-foot cutters.22

On August 7, 2001, NGSS notified Bollinger by email that NGSS’s contract with ICGS required that NGSS use ABS to certify compliance with ABS standards.23

On June 25, 2002, the Coast Guard named ICGS the lead contractor of the Deepwater program.24 The contract required ICGS and its subcontractors to provide the Coast Guard with a Hull Load and Strength Analysis (“HLSA”) to verify that the 123-foot cutter modification design met program and contract requirements.25 The contract incorporated an attachment that required ICGS to use ABS to certify compliance with ABS standards.26 The United States points to no provision of the contract specifying the content of this review or when it was supposed to take place.

In August 2002, the Coast Guard issued the first of four delivery task order under the ICGS contract for the design and modification of eight 123-foot cutters.27

On August 26, 2002, Bollinger’s chief executive officer, Boysie Bollinger, sent an email to Bollinger vice president T.R. Hamblin, as well as to other Bollinger officials.28 The email stated that ABS’s Robert Kramek had offered a structural analysis of the 123-foot cutter design.29 The email stated that ABS would provide a “confidential assessment.”30 Boysie Bollinger requested the views of Hamblin and the other email recipients as to whether to accept Kramek’s offer.31

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United States v. Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., 979 F. Supp. 2d 721, 2013 WL 5720340 (E.D. La. 2013).

979 F. Supp. 2d 721 (United States v. Bollinger Shipyards, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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