AGG’s Successful Claim on Behalf of a Large Government Contractor IT Reseller Serves as Case of First Impression at CBCA

Challenge

For nearly a decade, AGG has been a trusted legal partner to a large government contractor information technology reseller. One of the government contractor’s suppliers, an enterprise software company, alleged that a federal government agency over-deployed its software. AGG was asked to file a claim for the government contractor on behalf of the enterprise software company to recover significant costs attributed to that over-deployment. The AGG team knew that this would be a long process, due to typical government delays, but discovered a greater challenge that required multiple depositions, complex discovery and repeated submissions to federal courts with many lengthy and unexpected delays.

Approach

On April 12, 2017, AGG attorneys filed a certified claim at the U.S. Department of the Interior (“DOI”) on behalf of the government contractor alleging that a federal government agency over-deployed software beyond the contract terms of a contract modification issued by DOI under a U.S. General Services Administration contract. After the DOI Contracting Officer denied the claim, AGG attorneys successfully represented the client before the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (“CBCA”).

Result

After numerous depositions of federal government agency personnel, hundreds of exhibits and a two-day hearing at the CBCA in July of 2019, the CBCA finally granted our client’s claim on December 18, 2020, almost four years after the initial claim was filed. The Board concluded that the federal government agency over-deployed the software and that AGG’s client was entitled to more than $1M plus interest, which was promptly paid by the government to our client. In the CBCA’s 17-page Board Decision, the Board states, “Relatively few cases have addressed contract damages of software over-deployment.” This case will set a new precedent for the calculation of quantum in software over-deployment appeals at the CBCA.