Opinion ID: 511875
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Effective date for redetermined rates.

Text: 18 As we noted above, the Claims Court determined that the correct date for implementation of the reappraised rates was the adjusted termination date of the contract, September 4, 1984. The USFS' choice of January 1, 1986 as the effective date of the new rates worked no disadvantage to Cedar because it only postponed implementation of higher rates. In practical effect, this delay meant little since it appears that Cedar harvested no timber under this contract between those two dates. 19 Cedar does not complain about this difference. Rather, it argues that the effective date of the reappraised rates should have been much later because Interim Directive No. 105, Forest Service Manual p 2433.12a(5)(b)(2)(o), provides that earned CTAs be tacked on to the original contract termination date to determine the effective date for the new, higher rates. However, the Claims Court found that Cedar could not avail itself of this provision. Even though it may have had up to 96 earned but unused CTA days remaining as of September 4, 1984, the court found that Cedar had offered no plausible justification for its failure to use those days before the adjusted termination date of the original contract. Cedar's only explanation was that it was unable to harvest timber while an injunction issued in North Side, halting logging after the end of the 1982 season, was in effect. 20 As the Claims Court noted, this explanation amounts to a suggestion that Cedar should have been entitled to additional CTAs beyond the September 4, 1984 adjusted termination date because of the injunction. However, this potential entitlement is defeated by the very words of one of the contract terms setting out the conditions for additional CTAs. That term reads as follows: 21 (a) Purchaser experiences delay in starting scheduled operations or interruption in active operations ... for 10 or more consecutive calendar days during a Normal Operating Season due to causes beyond Purchaser's control, including but not limited to acts of God, acts of the public enemy, acts of Government, labor disputes, fires, insurrections or floods. 22 p B8.21(a) (emphasis added). Not only did the injunction in North Side run against the Government, but the plaintiff class (including Cedar) was the party that obtained the injunction. As such, Cedar cannot claim that a cause beyond its control prevented it from logging. We agree with the Claims Court that Cedar had no entitlement to outstanding CTAs that would have prevented the USFS from making the reappraised rates effective on January 1, 1986, or even on the earlier adjusted termination date of the original contract, September 4, 1984. 23