Utley-James, Inc. v. United States

34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,478, 14 Cl. Ct. 804, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 78, 1988 WL 42130
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 5, 1988
DocketNo. 759-85C
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,478 (Utley-James, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Utley-James, Inc. v. United States, 34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,478, 14 Cl. Ct. 804, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 78, 1988 WL 42130 (cc 1988).

Opinion

[806]*806MEMORANDUM OPINION

LYDON, Senior Judge.

In this pre Contract Disputes Act case (41 U.S.C. §§ 601-613 (1982)), plaintiff challenges a decision by the General Services Administration Board Of Contract Appeals (Board)1 dealing with various claims, totaling some five and one-half million dollars, asserted by plaintiff which arose during performance by plaintiff of a construction contract it entered into with the General Services Administration (GSA). Plaintiff seeks judicial review of this decision under the standards of the Wunderlich Act, 41 U.S.C. §§ 321 and 322, claiming that the decision, in certain respects, is arbitrary, capricious, grossly erroneous, not supported by substantial evidence and incorrect as a matter of law. Plaintiff also seeks damages for breach of contract. Defendant contends the decision is entitled to finality, as to the facts found by the Board, and is correct as a matter of law. Since the decision is entitled to finality under the standards of the Wunderlich Act, defendant argues, it is entitled to dismissal of plaintiffs complaint. Both parties have moved for summary judgment as the vehicle for judicial review of the Board decision.2 Upon consideration of the submissions of the parties, the administrative decision and record, and following oral argument, the court concludes that plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment should be denied and defendant’s cross-motion for summary judgment should be granted.

I.

Plaintiff and GSA entered into a contract on October 30, 1972, for the construction of the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Office Building in Detroit, Michigan. The contract price was $49,135,200. The work called for under the contract included a parking garage, plaza, and a twenty-seven story office tower. The building site occupied an entire large city block in downtown Detroit. Plaintiff, as the general contractor, was responsible for all phases of the work from foundation through the interior finish of the building. Plaintiff’s own work force built the shell of the building (columns and floor slabs) with cast-in-place reinforced concrete. Almost all of the other work required under the contract was performed by subcontractors. The size of the project is evidenced by the fact that the “Specifications and Bid Forms” issued to prospective bidders, as amended, encompassed six volumes.

The contract contained the Standard Form 23-A General Provisions (October 1969 Edition), as modified by GSA’s standard Modification of General Provisions (Mod-SF-23-A, February 1972 Edition). Among the clauses included in the General Provisions, as modified, were those entitled Changes (Article 3), Differing Site Conditions (Article 4), Termination for Default—Damages For Delay—Time Extensions (Article 5), Disputes (Article 6) and Suspension of Work (Article 23).

The contract also contained two different sets of General Conditions. These General Conditions, as modified, included clauses entitled Subcontracts, Shop Drawings, Coordinated Drawings and Schedules, Value Engineering Incentive Clause, Construction Progress Chart, Specifications and Drawings, Standard Details, Responsibility For Completion and Adjustment Of Contract Completion Time. Section 0118 of the specifications contained provisions under the heading “Critical Path Method Of Planning and Scheduling.”

The contract originally contained a scheduled completion date of July 20, 1975, (965 calendar days from the notice to proceed). Time extensions granted by the GSA extended the completion date to November 5, 1975. Substantial completion of the contract was reached on April 16, 1976, which [807]*807was 163 days later than the modified completion date of November 5,1975. Plaintiff was not assessed any liquidated damages under the contract.

The contracting officer’s decision in this case was issued on February 9, 1979, less than a month before the effective date of the Contract Disputes Act, supra. Before the Board, plaintiff complained of various government actions which evolved into claims of constructive changes, differing site conditions, compensable delays and an acceleration. The Board noted that “[t]he parties are in almost total disagreement; at times it appears that they cannot agree even on what the issues are.”3 The parties’ presentations in their motions for summary judgment have not made the court’s judicial review responsibilities any easier.4

The Board synthesized the positions of the parties as follows:

Appellant’s [plaintiff’s] position is generally this: (1) A series of events for which it was not responsible, such as the slippage of a foundation tieback, an operating engineers’ strike, and the discovery of an unexpected underground spring delayed its progress in the early phases of the work. (2) The Government’s computerized CPM (critical path method) schedule was not adjusted for these events and did not accurately reflect what was going on in this time frame. (3) The Government, under the erroneous impression that the delays were appellant’s fault, ordered appellant to accelerate, which appellant did, then gave appellant time extensions after it was too late for them to do any good. (4) The Government failed to give appellant the information it needed to do the interior finish work, and otherwise delayed the progress of the job after appellant’s acceleration, so that after virtually catching up to the original schedule, appellant again fell behind in the later phases of the work. Appellant claims the costs associated with the original delays, its alleged acceleration, and the later delays to the interior work.
The Government’s position is generally this: (1) The Government does not deny that early events delayed foundation work, but it contends that some of these were the responsibility of appellant or (what amounts to the same thing) its subcontractors and that others had no delaying impact on the critical path. (2) The delay on the critical path prior to the alleged acceleration directive was the result of slow concrete placement and other delays by appellant and its subcontractors and suppliers. (3) The Government [808]*808never directed appellant to accelerate but only told appellant that it was lagging behind the contract schedule and asked what appellant would do to catch up. (4) There is no evidence that appellant accelerated the work, but if appellant did so, it was without any directive from GSA and was done to make up its own lost time. (5) As for the later problems, they were attributable to the inability of appellant and its subcontractors to keep to the schedule; whatever appellant needed in the way of drawings or other information it received in time.

II.

In its decision, the Board granted plaintiff’s appeal in part as to entitlement and (since this was a pre Contract Disputes Act case) remanded that part to the contracting officer for a quantum determination.5

Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment presents for judicial review purposes the following issues: A. The critical path method schedule issue; B. The acceleration issue; C. The differing site condition issue; and D.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,478, 14 Cl. Ct. 804, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 78, 1988 WL 42130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/utley-james-inc-v-united-states-cc-1988.