Court Opinion

ID: 9752532
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:13:43.201335+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:17.209341
License: Public Domain

WHITAKER, Judge
(dissenting in part).
I do not think plaintiff is entitled to recover for bricking up the doors not shown on the plans, because of the fact that it signed the contract with knowledge that the contracting officer interpreted the plans and specifications to require that they be bricked up, and would insist upon this being done.
The fact that the contracting officer told plaintiff that its bid bond would be forfeited if it did not sign the contract does not amount to duress. If plaintiff had been excusably misled by the plans it had a right to withdraw its bid without incurring any liability on the bid bond. Presumably it knew this and, therefore, could not have been coerced by the contracting officer’s threat. Hartsville Oil Mill v. United States, 271 U.S. 43, 48, 46 S.Ct. 389, 70 L.Ed. 822, and cases cited.
Its failure to withdraw its bid and its signing of the contract, I think, bound it to do the work required of it.
I understand this to have been our holding in Massman Construction Co. v. United States, 60 F.Supp. 635, 102 Ct.Cl. 699, certiorari denied, 325 U.S. 866, 65 S.Ct. 1403, 89 L.Ed. 1985.