Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca13-22-02074/USCOURTS-ca13-22-02074-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
United Communities, LLC
Appellant
United States
Appellee

Document Text:

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals 

for the Federal Circuit ______________________

UNITED COMMUNITIES, LLC,

Plaintiff-Appellant

v.

UNITED STATES,

Defendant-Appellee

______________________

2022-2074

______________________

Appeal from the United States Court of Federal Claims 

in No. 1:20-cv-01220-PEC, Judge Patricia E. CampbellSmith.

______________________

Decided: January 12, 2024

______________________

G. SCOTT WALTERS, Smith, Currie & Hancock LLP, Atlanta, GA, for plaintiff-appellant. Also represented by 

SARAH CARPENTER, Charlotte, NC.

 EBONIE I. BRANCH, Commercial Litigation Branch, 

Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for defendant-appellee. Also represented by 

BRIAN M. BOYNTON, DEBORAH ANN BYNUM, PATRICIA M.

MCCARTHY.

______________________

Case: 22-2074 Document: 40 Page: 1 Filed: 01/12/2024
2 UNITED COMMUNITIES, LLC v. US

Before REYNA, TARANTO, and CHEN, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

United Communities, LLC (United Communities) filed 

with the United States Court of Federal Claims a motion 

for extension of time to file a notice of appeal one month 

after its notice of appeal should have been filed. The court 

denied this motion, determining that United Communities 

failed to show excusable neglect. United Communities, 

LLC v. United States, 160 Fed. Cl. 591, 592–93 (2022) (Order). Because we do not believe the court abused its discretion in finding no excusable neglect, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

In 2006, the United States (Government) and United 

Communities entered a contract in which United Communities agreed to develop and operate privatized military 

housing at McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix, 

Wrightstown, Burlington County, New Jersey. Under the 

contract, United Communities agreed to cap the rent it 

would charge to military families at an amount equal to 

each military member’s Basic Allowance for Housing 

(BAH). United Communities, LLC v. United States, 154 

Fed. Cl. 676, 678 (2021). On May 1, 2020, United Communities—dissatisfied with the Secretary of Defense’s exercise of statutory authority to reduce the BAH—submitted 

a certified claim to the contracting officer that alleged

(1) breach of contract, (2) breach of the implied duty of good 

faith and fair dealing, and (3) violation of the Takings 

Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Id. at 680; J.A. 40–43. The contracting officer 

denied the claim in a final decision on June 29, 2020. 

United Communities, 154 Fed. Cl. at 680.

After a subsequent confirmation of the contracting officer’s decision on July 8, 2020, United Communities filed 

suit in the Court of Federal Claims on September 17, 2020 

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UNITED COMMUNITIES, LLC v. US 3

against the Government, again alleging breach of contract, 

breach of the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing, 

and violation of the Takings Clause. Id. The Government 

moved to dismiss the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) of the 

Rules of the Court of Federal Claims, and the Court of Federal Claims granted the motion, dismissing the complaint 

with prejudice. Id. at 677–78, 685. United Communities 

filed a motion for reconsideration, which the court denied 

on November 18, 2021. United Communities, LLC v. 

United States, 157 Fed. Cl. 19, 20 (2021).

United Communities failed to timely file with the 

Court of Federal Claims its notice of appeal to our court. 

The parties do not dispute that, under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(1)(B), the deadline for filing a notice 

of appeal was tethered to the date of the court’s denial of 

United Communities’s motion for reconsideration and that 

this deadline was on January 17, 2022. United Communities did not file a notice of appeal on or before this deadline. 

Order, 160 Fed. Cl. at 592. Instead, United Communities’s 

counsel incorrectly relied on 41 U.S.C. § 7107, which governs timing of appeals of a decision from an agency board 

of contract appeals. J.A. 803.

After discovering this error, United Communities filed 

a motion for extension of time to file a notice of appeal on 

February 16, 2022 accompanied with a notice of appeal. 

Under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(5)(A), a 

“district court may extend the time to file a notice of appeal 

if . . . (i) a party so moves no later than 30 days after the 

time prescribed by this Rule 4(a) expires; and (ii) regardless of whether its motion is filed before or during the 30 

days after the time prescribed by this Rule 4(a) expires, 

that party shows excusable neglect or good cause.” United 

Communities’s notice of appeal removed jurisdiction from 

the Court of Federal Claims, and we remanded the case to 

the Court of Federal Claims to permit it to rule on the motion for extension of time.

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4 UNITED COMMUNITIES, LLC v. US

The Court of Federal Claims denied the motion, determining that United Communities’s failure to timely file did 

not rise to the level of excusable neglect. Order, 160 Fed. 

Cl. at 591–92. United Communities’s lead argument was

that the circumstances of its neglect were analogous to the 

unique docketing circumstances in Cygnus Corporation, 

Inc. v. United States, 65 Fed. Cl. 646 (2005), a case in which 

the court previously found excusable neglect. Order, 160 

Fed. Cl. at 592–93. But the court found that such unique 

docketing circumstances did not exist around United Communities’s neglect. Id. at 593. The court further considered the specific non-exhaustive factors articulated in

Pioneer Investment Services Co. v. Brunswick Associates 

Ltd. Partnership, 507 U.S. 380 (1993), but found no excusable neglect because United Communities “fail[ed] to identify anything other than ‘garden-variety miscalculation’ on 

counsel’s part.” Order, 160 Fed. Cl. at 593 (quoting Kansas 

Gas & Elec. Co. v. United States, 111 Fed. Cl. 169, 175 

(2013)). Finally, the court disposed of United Communities’s contention first raised in its reply that relied on 

United States v. Brown, 133 F.3d 993 (7th Cir. 1998). Order, 160 Fed. Cl. at 592 n.3. In United Communities’s view, 

the reasoning in Brown established that denial of United 

Communities’s motion would be overly harsh and accordingly counseled in favor of granting the motion. The court 

did not find this argument persuasive, explaining that 

Brown was not binding on the Court of Federal Claims and, 

as a criminal case, was factually distinguishable because it 

implicated a different set of rights and equities than those 

at issue in this civil case. Id. The court thus denied United 

Communities’s motion for an extension of time for filing a 

notice of appeal. Id. at 593.

United Communities timely appeals this denial. We 

have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(3).

Case: 22-2074 Document: 40 Page: 4 Filed: 01/12/2024
UNITED COMMUNITIES, LLC v. US 5

STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review a trial court’s grant or denial of a motion to 

extend time for filing a notice of appeal for an abuse of discretion. Penrod Drilling Co. v. United States, 925 F.2d 406, 

408 (Fed. Cir. 1991). “To constitute an abuse of discretion, 

a court must either make a clear error of judgment in 

weighing relevant factors or exercise discretion based upon 

an error of law.” DGR Assocs., Inc. v. United States, 690 

F.3d 1335, 1340 (Fed. Cir. 2012).

DISCUSSION

We are unpersuaded that the Court of Federal Claims 

abused its discretion in denying United Communities’s motion for an extension of time to file a notice of appeal.

I. Excusable Neglect

United Communities argues that the Court of Federal 

Claims failed to properly weigh the Pioneer factors. In Pioneer, the Supreme Court explained that “inadvertence, ignorance of the rules, or mistakes construing the rules do 

not usually constitute ‘excusable’ neglect . . . .” 507 U.S. at 

392. According to the Supreme Court, determining 

whether a party’s neglect is excusable “is at bottom an equitable one, taking account of all relevant circumstances 

surrounding the party’s omission.” Id. at 395. The Supreme Court then endorsed certain non-exhaustive factors

including (1) the danger of prejudice to the non-moving 

party, (2) the length of the delay and its potential impact 

on judicial proceedings, (3) the moving party’s reason for 

the delay, including whether the delay was within the reasonable control of the moving party, and (4) whether the 

moving party acted in good faith. Id. These factors are 

commonly known as the Pioneer factors. See FirstHealth 

of Carolinas, Inc. v. CareFirst of Maryland, Inc., 479 F.3d 

825, 828–29 (Fed. Cir. 2007).

We do not believe the Court of Federal Claims abused 

its discretion. United Communities’s motion primarily 

Case: 22-2074 Document: 40 Page: 5 Filed: 01/12/2024
6 UNITED COMMUNITIES, LLC v. US

relied on a Court of Federal Claims decision—Cygnus—but 

the court identified specific material differences between 

the circumstances surrounding United Communities’s neglect and the circumstances in Cygnus, observing that Cygnus “involved the unusual circumstance that the clerk’s 

office did not timely enter on the docket the order that began the appeal clock.” Order, 160 Fed. Cl. at 593. United 

Communities, the court explained, “identified no such factor that contributed to its delay in this case that is ‘outside 

the ordinary course.’” Id. (quoting Cygnus, 65 Fed. Cl. at 

649). The court additionally considered each Pioneer factor 

and, despite finding little prejudice to the Government and 

little threat to judicial administration, concluded that 

United Communities’s failure to identify any reason besides counsel’s erroneous understanding of the law 

weighed in favor of denial. Id.

United Communities argues that the Court of Federal 

Claims’s excusable-neglect analysis failed to consider the 

harshness of depriving United Communities of the right to 

appeal the dismissal. But under the circumstances, we believe the court’s response to this argument did not amount 

to an abuse of discretion. It reasoned that the rights and 

equities at issue in Brown, a criminal case, were distinguishable from the rights and equities implicated in the 

present civil case. Id. at 592 n.3. Instead, following its 

Kansas Gas decision, the court explained that United Communities “fail[ed] to identify anything other than ‘gardenvariety miscalculation’ on counsel’s part.” Id. at 593 (quoting Kansas Gas, 111 Fed. Cl. at 175). Considering United 

Communities’s limited presentation of its argument to the 

Court of Federal Claims, we conclude it has failed to show

that the court abused its discretion.

Furthermore, we are not persuaded that the other 

cases that United Communities raises for the first time on 

appeal establish that the Court of Federal Claims abused 

its discretion. Appellant’s Br. 19–20 (first citing Feeder 

Line Towing Serv., Inc. v. Toledo, P. & W. R. R. Co., 539 

Case: 22-2074 Document: 40 Page: 6 Filed: 01/12/2024
UNITED COMMUNITIES, LLC v. US 7

F.2d 1107 (7th Cir. 1976); and then citing Treasurer, Trustees of Drury Indus., Inc. Health Care Plan & Tr. v. Goding, 

692 F.3d 888 (8th Cir. 2012)). In Feeder Line, the Seventh 

Circuit determined the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding excusable neglect based on counsel’s mistaken understanding of “clearly conflicting language of two 

provisions of the law” with respect to the deadline for filing 

a notice of appeal. 539 F.2d at 1109. And in Treasurer, the 

Eighth Circuit similarly determined that the district court 

did not abuse its discretion in finding excusable neglect 

based on a computer error in counsel’s calendaring system. 

692 F.3d at 893. These cases, however, are factually distinguishable. Here, United Communities explained that 

its calendaring error was due to counsel’s misplaced reliance on their experience with appeals from a different tribunal, not due to conflicting language in the law or a 

computer error. Order, 160 Fed. Cl. at 592. Moreover, it is 

worth noting that in these decisions as well as in Brown, 

the appellate courts did not reverse any trial court rulings 

but instead deferred to the trial courts, given the latitude 

they are accorded under the applicable standard of review. 

In sum, we do not believe the Court of Federal Claims 

abused its discretion in finding no excusable neglect.

II. Good Cause

United Communities alternatively alleges that the

Court of Federal Claims legally erred in refusing to analyze 

whether good cause justified the delay. We agree with the 

court that “[i]n substance, however, [United Communities]’s argument [before the Court of Federal Claims] addresse[d] only excusable neglect.” Id. at 592 n.2. Having 

addressed United Communities’s substantive arguments, 

which were all directed to excusable neglect, the court did 

not abuse its discretion by not separately addressing

United Communities’s bare references to good cause. To

the extent United Communities argues that we should find 

good cause for the first time on appeal, we decline to do so. 

See Fresenius USA, Inc. v. Baxter Int’l, Inc., 582 F.3d 1288, 

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8 UNITED COMMUNITIES, LLC v. US

1296 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (deeming a “skeletal or undeveloped 

argument” presented to the district court to be waived on 

appeal).

CONCLUSION

We have considered United Communities’s remaining 

arguments and find them unpersuasive. While we are 

sympathetic to United Communities’s situation, we cannot 

find a sufficient reason to displace the discretion of the 

Court of Federal Claims in denying United Communities’s 

motion for extension of time. For the foregoing reasons, we 

affirm the denial of the Court of Federal Claims.

AFFIRMED

Case: 22-2074 Document: 40 Page: 8 Filed: 01/12/2024