U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 2023

Ecc International Constructors, LLC v. Secretary of the Army

Ecc International Constructors, LLC v. Secretary of the Army
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit · Decided August 22, 2023

Ecc International Constructors, LLC v. Secretary of the Army

Opinion

Case: 22-1368 Document: 47 Page: 1 Filed: 08/22/2023

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________ ECC INTERNATIONAL CONSTRUCTORS, LLC, Appellant v. SECRETARY OF THE ARMY, Appellee ______________________ 2022-1368 ______________________ Appeal from the Armed Services Board of Contract Ap- peals in No. 59643, Administrative Judge Owen C. Wilson, Administrative Judge Richard Shackleford, Administra- tive Judge Timothy Paul McIlmail. ______________________ Decided: August 22, 2023 ______________________ ROY DALE HOLMES, Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman, Philadelphia, PA, argued for appellant. Also rep- resented by MICHAEL H. PAYNE.

CORINNE ANNE NIOSI, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Wash- ington, DC, argued for appellee. Also represented by BRIAN M. BOYNTON, PATRICIA M. MCCARTHY. ______________________ Case: 22-1368 Document: 47 Page: 2 Filed: 08/22/2023

2 ECC INTERNATIONAL CONSTRUCTORS, LLC v. SECRETARY OF THE ARMY

Before PROST, LINN, and CUNNINGHAM, Circuit Judges.

PROST, Circuit Judge.

ECC International Constructors, LLC (“ECCI”) ap- peals a decision of the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (“Board”) partially dismissing its claim for lack of jurisdiction. ECC Int’l Constructors, LLC, ASBCA No. 59643, 21-1 BCA ¶ 37,967 (Nov. 10, 2021). We reverse and remand.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded ECCI a contract in 2010 to design and build a military compound in Afghanistan. On May 2, 2014, ECCI submitted a claim to the contracting officer under the Contract Disputes Act (“CDA”), 41 U.S.C. §§ 7101–7109, seeking $3,767,856.32 in relief for additional costs it allegedly incurred due to gov- ernment directives to perform extra work. After years of litigation and a hearing on the merits in June 2020, the government moved to dismiss nine out of 23 direct cost items identified in ECCI’s claim for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, arguing that each of those nine cost items com- prises multiple sub-claims that require, but failed to state, their own sum certain. The Board granted the govern- ment’s motion to dismiss.

Today we issued an opinion in a companion appeal, No. 21-2323, from the Board’s dismissal of a claim arising out of the same contract. Like here, the Board in that case dismissed ECCI’s claim for lack of subject-matter jurisdic- tion because ECCI failed to state a sum certain for each sub-claim. We reversed and remanded, holding that the sum-certain requirement for CDA claims is a mandatory but nonjurisdictional requirement subject to forfeiture.

Our holding in the companion appeal compels the same result here. Accordingly, we reverse the Board’s partial dismissal for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. We re- mand for the Board to evaluate whether the government Case: 22-1368 Document: 47 Page: 3 Filed: 08/22/2023

ECC INTERNATIONAL CONSTRUCTORS, LLC v. 3 SECRETARY OF THE ARMY

forfeited its right to challenge ECCI’s satisfaction of the sum-certain requirement, and, if it did, to consider ECCI’s case on the merits.

REVERSED AND REMANDED COSTS No costs.

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