Opinion ID: 628626
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The August 7, 1989 Default Termination Decision

Text: 23 Although the contracting officer had issued a final decision on the default termination, he had not issued as a final decision the government's demand for the return of unliquidated progress payments when the original suit was filed. The contracting officer's default termination letter of August 7, 1989 could not provide a jurisdictional basis for the government's counterclaim for progress payments because these two claims are not the same. Crippen & Graen Corp. v. United States, 18 Cl.Ct. 237, 241 (1989) ([T]he default claim and the demand for return of the unliquidated progress payments are separate and distinct ... for jurisdictional purposes.). Therefore, the contracting officer's final decision solely on the default termination does not satisfy the jurisdictional prerequisite of a contracting officer's final decision as to the unliquidated progress payments claim. Id. at 240-41 (distinguishing Nuclear Research Corp. v. United States, 814 F.2d 647 (Fed.Cir.1987) on the ground that the contracting officer in that case made a final decision on both the default termination and the progress payment claim). 24 Furthermore, the government's claim for return of progress payments is a claim for money damages. Such a claim requires 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. FAR Sec. 33.201 (1992). At the time of the August letter, no such written demand or assertion of present entitlement to a sum certain had been submitted to or issued by the contracting officer. Additionally, the August letter contains no reference to any money entitlement being asserted by the government, let alone to the progress payments. Therefore, the August letter could not possibly constitute a final decision for purposes of the government's money damages claim or the contractor's mirror image claim.