The Contract Disputes Act Of 1978

Author : LandMark Publications
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781980689904
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (899 download)

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Download or read book Contract Disputes Act written by LandMark Publications and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-30 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of U. S. Court of Appeals decisions that analyze, interpret and apply provisions of the Contract Disputes Act. * * *The purpose of the CDA was to streamline the procedural aspects of government contract disputes, not to displace existing government defenses and remedies. Congress enacted the CDA to "provide[] a fair, balanced, and comprehensive statutory system of legal and administrative remedies." S. REP. No. 95-1118, at 1 (1978). It clarified how the contract dispute process should work. Id. at 4; see also id. at 35 ("S. 3178 will put into statute the process by which Government contract claims are handled."); H.R. REP. No. 95-1556, at 33 (1978) ("The bill provides for a statutory basis for the settlement of contract disputes in lieu of the present system primarily governed by standard contract provisions.... It does not provide for any new specific programs."). This goal was achieved primarily through enhancing contractors' access to courts and clarifying the powers of agency boards of contract appeals. S. REP. No. 95-1118, at 11-13. Laguna Const. Company, Inc. v. Carter, 828 F. 3d 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2016). * * *"A prerequisite for jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims over a CDA claim is a final decision by a contracting officer on a valid claim." Northrop Grumman Computing Sys., Inc. v. United States, 709 F.3d 1107, 1111-12 (Fed. Cir. 2013); see also 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(2); 41 U.S.C. § 7104(b)(1). Because the CDA does not define "claim," we look to the Federal Acquisition Regulation ("FAR"), which defines a claim as "a written demand or written assertion by one of the contracting parties seeking, as a matter of right, the payment of money in a sum certain, the adjustment or interpretation of contract terms, or other relief arising under or relating to th[e] contract." FAR 52.233-1(c); see also J.A. 789 (incorporating this clause into Securiforce's contract). We have explained that for monetary claims, the absence of a sum certain is "fatal to jurisdiction under the CDA." Northrop, 709 F.3d at 1112; accord M. Maropakis Carpentry, Inc. v. United States, 609 F.3d 1323, 1327-29 (Fed. Cir. 2010). Relatedly, "once a claim is in litigation, the contracting officer may not rule on it--even if the claim . . . was not properly submitted to and denied by the contracting officer before it was placed in litigation." K-Con, 778 F.3d at 1005. Securiforce International America, LLC v. US, (Fed. Cir. 2018).