CBCA 3562

GRANTED: October 27, 2015 CBCA 3562 PARADISE PILLOW, INC., Appellant, v. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, Respondent. Daniel A. Bellman of Bellman Law, Granville, OH, counsel for Appellant. Michael J. Noble and Stephen T. O’Neal, Office of General Counsel, General Services Administration, Washington, DC, counsel for Respondent. Before Board Judges DANIELS (Chairman), POLLACK, and ZISCHKAU. DANIELS, Board Judge. Paradise Pillow, Inc. (Paradise) appeals the termination for “default/cause” by a General Services Administration (GSA) contracting officer of a delivery order for blankets. After reviewing the documentary record and hearing testimony from Paradise’s president, two GSA contracting officers, and a representative of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), we are persuaded that good grounds for the termination did not exist. Consequently, we grant the appeal. CBCA 3562 2 Findings of Fact Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey on October 29, 2012. That state and others around it were devastated by the storm’s impact. Among other difficulties, utility services were disrupted. The State of New Jersey established a power restoration task force. A FEMA representative, John (Jack) Herbert, was assigned to assist the task force by helping the utility companies to secure materials necessary to make repairs to their systems. The utility companies were concerned that their customers stay warm in the ensuing cold temperatures despite the loss of power. For that reason, they asked Mr. Herbert, on behalf of FEMA, to secure blankets which they could distribute to needy customers. Thus began the misadventure which spawned this litigation. Mr. Herbert thought that purchasing blankets made no sense because a million blankets were already on hand in the state for use in emergency situations. He acceded to the request, however, thinking that an order for throwaway blankets, costing $1.20 each, would not be excessively expensive. On November 5, at 4:13 p.m., FEMA asked GSA, which provides acquisition support to FEMA during disasters, to purchase 300,000 blankets for delivery to two locations by 5 p.m. on November 7. The locations were yards of Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L); points of contact there were identified as John Sperone (at Dover) and Troy Brier (at Farmingdale – incorrectly spelled “Farmindale”). Mr. Herbert was noted in the FEMA request as the agency’s point of contact. At GSA, the request was assigned to Bridgette Overbey, a contracting officer who served as the director of the Acquisition Emergency Branch, and Eun Mi Yu, a contracting officer who served on Ms. Overbey’s team. As Ms. Yu testified, “It was, as you can imagine, a very challenging situation trying to fulfill these requirements on a very quick turnaround.” On November 6, GSA issued a request for quotations to supply 300,000 cotton blankets to the Government. Ms. Yu called Paradise, a firm which had worked with GSA for more than a decade in providing emergency relief supplies, and asked Freddy Halfon, the firm’s president, to respond to this request. Mr. Halfon told Ms. Yu that he could supply 150,000 blankets, but due to transportation difficulties resulting from the storm, could not promise delivery as quickly as FEMA wanted. GSA issued another request for quotations on the morning of November 7, specifying a need for “150,000 blankets, white, 100% cotton, 66" x 90".” Ultimately, late in the afternoon of November 7, GSA issued and Paradise accepted a delivery order for 150,000 blankets, half to be delivered to the Dover location (later changed to Wharton) and the other half to the Farmingdale location, by 9 a.m. on November 9. The order required Paradise to “deliver to both locations via drop trailers.” CBCA 3562 3 Contacts listed were Mr. Sperone at Dover (and later, at Wharton) and Mr. Brier at Farmingdale; telephone numbers were provided for each of these JCP&L employees. The order was placed against Paradise’s GSA multiple award schedule contract.