Opinion ID: 786478
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Was the ambiguity patent?

Text: 34 Because we hold that the solicitation was ambiguous, we turn now to the question of whether the ambiguity was patent. An ambiguity will only be construed against the government if it was not obvious on the face of the solicitation and reliance is shown. See, e.g., Edward R. Marden Corp. v. United States, 803 F.2d 701, 705 (Fed.Cir.1986). If the ambiguity is patent, it triggers a duty to inquire. A patent ambiguity is one that is obvious, gross, [or] glaring, so that plaintiff contractor had a duty to inquire about it at the start. H & M Moving, Inc. v. United States, 204 Ct.Cl. 696, 499 F.2d 660, 671 (1974). If an ambiguity is obvious and a bidder fails to inquire with regard to the provision, his interpretation will fail. Triax Pac., Inc. v. West, 130 F.3d 1469, 1475 (Fed.Cir.1997). 35 NVT argues that while the line items in question used numbers unrelated to the calendar in the Frequency column, and differed in that respect from the remaining hundreds of line items that made reference to regular and periodic calendar occurrences as Frequency entries, these differences do not create a patent ambiguity. Rather, NVT contends that instead of focusing on the uniqueness of the disputed line items, it is more important to understand that there is nothing about those line items that prohibits a reasonable reading consistent with the remainder of the solicitation. The government argues that the fact that numbers were used in the Frequency column for these twelve line item entries, and not for the others, should have raised a red flag for NVT, requiring NVT to inquire. The government also argues that in tallying its estimate and noting that these thirteen line items accounted for a large portion of its total price estimate — approximately $6 million out of a $43 million bid, or some 14% — despite their being treated as incidental in the solicitation, NVT was also put on notice that it should have inquired. Where, as here, a certain set of line items is expressed in a manner so different from hundreds of other line items, yielding totals disproportionate to the remainder of the solicitation, we find the differences to be obvious, gross, [or] glaring, H & M Moving, 499 F.2d at 671, requiring NVT to inquire. Because the solicitation was ambiguous, but any ambiguity was patent, and because it is undisputed that NVT did not inquire into such ambiguity, NVT cannot prevail.