Court Opinion

ID: 9456553
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:56:44.084049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:01.697602
License: Public Domain

COLLINS, Judge (dissenting):
It seems to me that the crux of the court’s opinion is that Reynolds’ most favored nation agreement with the Government was not breached by the more favorable treatment accorded Kaiser because Kaiser’s more favorable treatment was brought about by a decision of this court and not by the independent action of the GSA. This narrow construction of such an extraordinary agreement appears to me to be inconsistent with this court’s opinion in Kaiser 11 as well as with the spirit of the agreement itself.
In Kaiser I, this court held that the most favored nation agreement between the Government and Kaiser guaranteed equality of interpretation of contract terms. Without this guarantee, the court reasoned, “reliance upon the right [to uniform terminology] would be an empty exercise.” 388 F.2d at 331, 181 Ct.Cl. at 926. By the same token, since matters of contract interpretation, at times, may not be finally resolved without litigation, a guarantee of equality of interpretation is seriously eroded when it is confined to interpretation emanating from the GSA.
Fully stated, Kaiser I stands for the proposition that the most favored nation agreement here under consideration guaranteed to the contractors “equality of treatment.” Moreover, this proposition, in my opinion, accurately reflects the spirit of the agreement. Before the various aluminum producers involved in the Government’s Korean emergency program entered into their separate supply contracts, they demanded assurance *989that none would get more favored treatment than another. Each producer wanted a guarantee that its competitive position in the aluminum market would not suffer through more favorable treatment being extended to one or more of its competitors under the contracts. This reasonable expectation was accommodated, presumably, by the most favored nation agreement.
Properly interpreted, the agreement guaranteed equality of treatment under the contract. This meant that any time one of the contractors received a benefit under its contract owing to an interpretation of the contract, regardless of the origin of the benefit, which was not extended to another contractor, the latter’s most favored nation agreement was breached.
I regard as specious the court’s reasoning that Reynolds’ most favored nation agreement was somehow inoperative because the funds used to pay the Kaiser I judgment were specially appropriated by Congress and actually paid by the General Accounting Office, an arm of the Congress. If the Kaiser dispute had been settled without litigation, the amount of the settlement would have then been paid by the GSA out of GSA funds. I can see no reason for negating the force of Reynolds’ most favored nation agreement merely because Kaiser’s dispute over contract interpretation was not settled prior to litigation.
While Reynolds’ claim for breach of the substantive terms of its contract unquestionably accrued more than 6 years prior to the filing of this suit, Reynolds’ present claim is not predicated on a breach of those substantive terms, but on a breach of the Government’s obligation of equal treatment. This breach could not possibly have occurred prior to the 1967 decision in Kaiser I, well within the 6-year period preceding the filing of this suit. Reynolds’ claim for breach of its most favored nation agreement, therefore, accrued within 6 years of the filing of this suit.
I would deny defendant’s motion.

. Kaiser Alum. & Chem. Corp. v. United States, 388 F.2d 317, 181 Ct.Cl. 902 (1967).