IMPRESA CONSTRUZIONI GEOM. DOMENICO GARUFI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee., 238 F.3d 1324

Summary

At issue was the standard for reviewing decisions of contracting officers under the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996 (ADRA), Pub. L. No. 104-320, § 12, 110 Stat. 3870, 3874-75 (1996). Specifically, plaintiff alleged that the contracting officer's responsibility determination was arbitrary because the third party did not fulfill the "integrity and business ethics" requirement of Federal Acquisition Regulation § 9.104-1(d). The court of appeals held that the plaintiff had standing to challenge the contracting officer's responsibility determination. Applying the standards of the ADRA, the appellate court found that a substantial question has been raised concerning the rationality of the contracting officer's responsibility determination and reversed and remanded to the Court of Federal Claims (Claims Court) to allow a limited deposition of the contracting officer concerning the basis for the responsibility determination so that the Claims Court could properly review the ...