Court Opinion

ID: 9495414
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:02:17.587724+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:00.460503
License: Public Domain

PROST, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. In May 1993, James Robinson contracted with the government to purchase a former restaurant (the “property”) in Lutz, Florida based on his bid of $394,000 at a government-sponsored auction. Robinson & Fla. Businessmen’s Ass’n, Inc. v. United States, 50 Fed. Cl. 368 (Fed.Cl.2001). One year later, in May 1994, Mr. Robinson breached his contract with the government by abandoning the property. The government recovered the property and approximately 6 months later, on November 28, 1994, it accepted a private offer of $200,000 for the same property. Mr. Robinson was therefore liable for the difference between $394,000 and $200,000.
Mr. Robinson argued before the Court of Federal Claims that the government’s private sale of the property at $200,000 was unreasonable.. The Court of Federal Claims agreed, concluding that, in connection with its resale of the property after Mr. Robinson’s breach, the government had acted unreasonably by not taking sufficient steps to mitigate its damages and that for the government to sell the property “for substantially less than it had recently commanded, without explanation for the decrease, is to act unreasonably.” Having reached this conclusion, it was left to the court to determine the appropriate amount of damages, if any, by comparing what Mr. Robinson owed to what the property could and should have reasonably been sold for as a result of his breach. In determining the reasonable value of the property, the court relied on an appraisal done by an expert, Mr. LaFrance, used by both parties and held that “the amount the Government, reasonably informed and with reasonable effort, should have *1336raised — is $325,000,” or the appraised liquidation value of the property. Mr. LaF-rance’s 1993 appraisal report concluded that if the property were sold within six months, its liquidation value would be $325,000.1 Based on this finding, the court concluded that the government was only “eligible to recover the contract price of $394,000 less the value of the resale price it should have received — $325,000—re-duced by plaintiffs $39,000 deposit.”
It is important to note at the outset that the issue on appeal is not whether the government acted reasonably in these circumstances. It was found to have acted unreasonably and that conclusion is not being challenged. Rather, the issue on appeal is what the proper valuation of the property would have been had the government acted properly in selling the property after Mr. Robinson’s breach. It is undisputed that the correct standard, stated by the Court of Federal Claims and in Ketchikan Pulp Co. v. United States, 20 Cl.Ct. 164 (1990), is that the non-breaching party has a “duty to mitigate its damages when a purchaser or seller breaches its contract with the United States.” Id. at 166. In so doing, however, the “government is not required to make extraordinary efforts to ferret out the single best situation which will absolutely minimize the breaching party’s damages. All that is required is that the government act reasonably and promptly under the circumstances.” Id. (emphasis added).
The majority concludes that although the Court of Federal Claims articulated the correct standard in its opinion, it applied the incorrect legal standard to the government’s effort to mitigate damages when it concluded that the government was required to seek no more than the liquidation value, $325,000, and make no efforts if offered that price. Ante at 1333. With all due respect to the majority, in my view, the Court of Federal Claims both articulated and applied the correct legal standard to the particular facts and circumstances. Thus, its conclusion that the liquidation value of the property was the proper and reasonable valuation for purposes of determining the government’s duty to mitigate is a finding of fact that we review for clear error. See Cooper v. United States, 827 F.2d 762, 763 (Fed.Cir. 1987) (citing Milmark Services, Inc. v. United States, 731 F.2d 855, 857 (Fed.Cir.1984) (“We review Claims Court decisions for errors of law and clearly erroneous findings of fact.”)).
Clearly, there is some evidence to support the majority’s view that $400,000 rather than $325,000 was the proper valuation of the property upon which the court should have based its calculation of damages. But in the end, the majority’s conclusion that an auction would have yielded a $400,000 bid is speculative and thus does not provide a sufficient basis, in my view, for overturning the trial court’s conclusion that the liquidation value was the appropriate measure of damages.2 Specifically, *1337the majority observes that it would have been reasonable for the government to pay $5,000 in fees to have an auction that would provide $75,000 more in gains than the liquidation value. Ante at 1334. That view, however, is based solely on the fact that the auction a year earlier yielded Robinson’s bid of $394,000 and 24 other bids. I would respectfully submit that the only non-speculative conclusion that one can draw from this history is that an ultimate defaulter was willing to pay almost $400,000 a year earlier and that 24 other individuals also submitted bids for less than that amount with no minimum bid having been required. I find the circumstances here insufficient to overturn the court’s conclusion.
Certainly, in cases involving valuation of real estate, there is likely some basis to argue that an alternative course of action would have produced a better result. A reasonable mitigation effort by the government, in my view, however, does not require that the government engage in a lengthy marketing effort lasting from a minimum of six months to one year in order to obtain a price closer to Mr. Robinson’s original purchase price. In this case, for example, given that the appraisal based on more than twelve months of marketing indicated the property would have yielded as much as $465,000, if inclined, one could go one step beyond the majority and argue that it would have been reasonable for the government to have followed that course instead. That is why, in these types of cases, and under the circumstances of this case, it would seem imperative that we allow reliance on an undisputed . appraisal based on liquidation value.
Further, in my view, the majority is correct that the record in this case reveals a complete absence of volitional acts by the government here to sell or market the property at issue. But the government has already been held accountable for its failures. It lost in the Court of Federal Claims precisely because its actions, or lack thereof, in connection with its resale were held to be unreasonable. Therefore, the only issue remaining on appeal is what the proper valuation of the property would have been had .the government acted both reasonably and promptly. In these circumstances, it is my view that the Court of Federal Claims correctly'held that the liquidation value was the proper measure. If the non-breaching party is given the choice between two reasonable courses, the breaching party “cannot complain that one rather than the other is chosen.” McCormick on Damages, Chapter 5, § 35 (1935). For the foregoing reasons I would' affirm the Court of Federal Claims’ decision.

. The majority concludes that "the government’s own appraiser testified that the property values had actually stabilized and had even begun to climb in the time since the auction....” Ante at 1334. However, I read Mr. LaFrance’s testimony regarding market change as quite tentative. He stated only "that the real estate market may in fact have begun to experience a turnaround after depressed real estate process in 1991, 1992 and 1993.”