Opinion ID: 1939265
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The warranty of commercial availability.

Text: The warranty of commercial availability originated in government contract cases, such as Aerodex, Inc. v. United States, 189 Ct.Cl. 344, 417 F.2d 1361 (1969), [6] in which the government puts out for bid a contract specifying the use of brand name components that later prove to be unavailable on the commercial market. The practice of specifying brand name components is often used when a description of the technical construction of the component is not available; thus, the practice is a form of shorthand in which the government specifies Brand X or equal rather than spelling out the engineering specifications that go into making the component. Problems arise, however, when the specified component, or equal, is not commercially available. Such was the case in Aerodex, in which the sole manufacturer of a component specified by the government refused either to sell the component to the contractor or to make available to the contractor the component's specifications for in-house fabrication. [7] In such cases, contractors may find themselves unable to perform, or able to do so only by meeting the terms imposed upon them by recalcitrant manufacturers. [8] Recognizing the unfairness of the burden imposed upon contractors in such situations, the Claims Court, writing in Aerodex, held that [i]t is the obligation of the Government to ascertain and assure to bidders the commercial availability of the component [specified in the contract] from its manufacturer before it employs it as a purchase description or, failing that, to provide bidders with a sufficient description of the physical specifications and performance characteristics so that it may be duplicated by the bidders either by in-house fabrication or by purchase from suppliers. Here the Government did neither. It was improper for the Government to cast this burden of advance ascertainment upon bidders without explicit warning to them of the questionable availability and physical makeup of the component. Id. at 1366. Thus, by including a brand name product or component in the specifications of a contract put out for bid, the government warrants the commercial availability of that product or component.