Court Opinion

ID: 9473753
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:38:35.08558+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:42.789258
License: Public Domain

NICHOLS, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissent-m£-
Respectfully, I dissent. The contract involved numerous items of work, to all of which the quoted clauses applied. It is not surprising that they fitted some items but awkwardly and with ambiguity, and I read the “shop drawing” clause, 2.2, and the definition of “shop drawings,” 15, as ambiguous as applied to the commitment to install smoke dampers in the duct work. The Mylar drawings really portrayed existing site conditions that were concealed until access openings were cut, and not what work was to be done, or equipment to be installed. The parties practically treated the submission of manufacturer’s drawings as adequate compliance until the GSA seized a chance to cut the equitable adjustment otherwise due. The government called the drawings “shop drawings” with no other justification. If the provision of site drawings was required as “shop drawings,” the access opening should have been cut within 30 days to make preparation possible, and then the holes would have gaped open for months, defacing a building that remained in actual use. If Schlosser or its subcontractor had done this, the GSA would have been the first to express outrage.