In Lodge Construction, Inc. v. United States, the US Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”) prefaced its 46-page opinion by stating: “This case should serve as a cautionary tale to government.
In this fifth semiannual installment, we have packed up the notable Contract Disputes Act claims litigation decisions coming out of the Federal Circuit, Court of Federal Claims, Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, and.
The United States Court of Federal Claims recently issued an opinion discussing the six-year statute of limitations on fraud claims. In Lodge Constr., Inc. v. United States, No. 13-499,.
In 2010, the Army Corps of Engineers (“Government”) awarded Lodge Construction, Inc. (“Lodge”) a fixed-price contract to rehabilitate a levee in Florida. To accommodate performance of subsurface work, Lodge designed and constructed a temporary cofferdam, using a subsurface geotechnical site inspection and analysis furnished by the Government. The Government accepted Lodge’s final cofferdam design in July 2011, and Lodge began work soon thereafter. In March 2012, however, water breached two sections of the cofferdam’s sheet pile wall, after which the Government retroactively disapproved of Lodge’s cofferdam design.
After the sheet wall failed, the Government requested that Lodge submit a new sheet pile design by May 29, 2012. Instead, Lodge submitted two certified claims to the Contracting Officer: the first of which challenged the retroactive disapproval of its sheet pile design, the second of which sought compensation for labor and equipment costs attributable to th