Court Opinion

ID: 9496983
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:40:31.449343+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:55.685019
License: Public Domain

MAYER, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
Because the operating room panelboards and feeders were part of the emergency electrical system, and because the contract requires two-hour fire-rated protection for the emergency electrical system, I dissent.
“Contracts are viewed in their entirety and given the meaning imputed to a reasonably intelligent contractor acquainted *1325with the involved circumstances, regardless of whether labelled design, performance, or both.” Blake Constr. Co. v. United States, 987 F.2d 743, 746 (Fed.Cir.1993) (citations omitted). “An interpretation which gives reasonable meaning to all parts of a contract is preferred to one which renders part of it insignificant or useless.” Id. at 746-47. As we have also noted, “[a] contract should be interpreted in such a way that all parts make sense” when interpreted as a whole. Hughes Communications Galaxy v. United States, 998 F.2d 953, 958 (Fed.Cir.1993).
The main issue boils down to whether the operating room panelboards and feeders were part of the emergency electrical system based upon the specification, the drawings, the incorporated FAR provisions, and the National Electrical Code (“NEC”). If so, the contract unambiguously required two-hour fire-rated protection for the feeders and panelboards supplying emergency power to the operating room. I agree with the trial court’s ruling that the contract fully defined the emergency electrical system to include the operating room panelboards and feeders.
When read together, the plain language of section 16050, paragraph 1.22, incorporating the NEC definition of “Emergency System,” and of section 16111 mandate that feeders and panelboards receive two-hour fire-rated protection. Section 16050, paragraph 1.22.C requires that “all portions of the emergency system ... shall ... be enclosed within two hour fire rated enclosures.” NEC article 517-3, defines “Emergency System” as, “A system of feeders and branch circuits ... intended to supply alternate power to a limited number of prescribed functions vital to the protection of life and patient safety, with automatic restoration of electrical power within 10 seconds of interruption.” As configured, the operating room panel-boards had two potential sources of power, normal commercial electricity and an emergency generator. The feeders at issue were the alternate emergency source of power to the operating room panel-boards. The feeders and panelboards were part of the “Critical Branch,” as defined in NEC article 517-3, in that they were “[a] subsystem of the emergency system consisting of feeders ... supplying energy to ... selected receptacles serving areas and functions related to patient care.... ” Additionally, the feeders and panelboards were also part of the NEC definition, of “Essential Electrical System” because they were part of “[a] system ... designed to ensure continuity of electrical power to designated areas, and functions of a health care facility during disruption of normal power sources.... ” Finally, Section 16111, paragraph 3.2.B, required that the “Essential (Emergency) raceway systems ... shall be either in a rated and approved two (2) hour enclosure or the raceway shall be two (2) hour rated.... ” The NEC definitions, set forth as minimum installation standards, combined with the specification requirements make clear that the feeders and panelboards at issue were part of the “emergency system” that was required to be fire-rated.
The court relies upon negative inferences deduced from the contract drawings to find to the contrary. Because drawing 1 E37 makes the explicit statements that the elevator feeders “shall change to MI cable prior to penetrating the third floor,” and that Turner was to “provide 2 HR rated MI cable” for the elevator feeders, the court draws the negative inference that separate feeders are not part of the emergency electric systems requiring two-hour fire-rated protection. Examining the *1326entire contract, however, leads to a broader, more plausible interpretation. The penthouse wiring transition through the operating room third-floor was simply a “special condition” and the conduit-and-wire designations indicated wiring size, not fire protection requirements. Also, Turner should have been alerted to the fact that the drawings’ references to use of MI cable for certain locations did not preclude two-hour fire protection because section 16111 explicitly stated that either MI cable or a two-hour fire-rated enclosure would satisfy the requirement. Thus, even if Turner’s negative inference were correct — that drawings 1E1 and 1E37 required the installation of the conduit-and-wire option and not MI cable — the two-hour fire-rated protection could still have been satisfied through the installation of a two-hour fire-rated enclosure.