CBCA 8787

MOTION TO COMPEL GRANTED: April 28, 2026 CBCA 8787 YUANMING ZHANG, Appellant, v. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, Respondent. Yuanming Zhang, pro se, Allen, TX. Alexander Falciani, Office of General Counsel, General Services Administration, Philadelphia, PA, counsel for Respondent. LESTER, Board Judge. ORDER1 This order addresses an “Emergency Motion to Compel Discovery” that appellant, Yuanming Zhang, filed on April 10, 2026, as part of his effort to obtain document production from a non-respondent agency. 1 This order is being published to assist in providing greater transparency to the public about the manner in which the Board has addressed issues in cases before it. Although single-judge orders like this one are binding in the appeals in which they are issued, they are, consistent with Board Rule 1(d) (48 CFR 6101.1(d) (2024)), not precedential in other appeals before the Board. CBCA 8787 2 Background Mr. Zhang purchased a vehicle from the General Services Administration (GSA) through an online GSA auction. He claims that the auction site (and his resulting contract) contained a misdescription of the vehicle that he purchased, and he submitted a claim to the GSA contracting officer seeking a refund and other monetary damages before filing this appeal. Mr. Zhang elected to proceed in this appeal using the small claims procedure in Board Rule 52 (48 CFR 6101.52 (2024)) but, at the same time, indicated that he wanted to take some discovery from the Government before submitting his case for decision on the written record under Rule 19. Because, under the small claims procedure, the Board is supposed to resolve an appeal, if possible, within 120 days after the procedure is elected, see Rule 52(c), the Board established an expedited schedule for discovery and Rule 19 briefing, with discovery closing on March 20; GSA’s Rule 19 brief due by March 27; and Mr. Zhang’s Rule 19 brief due by April 17, 2026. Applying the small claims procedure’s timeline, a decision is due in this appeal, if possible, by May 18, 2026. Mr. Zhang later requested an enlargement to the discovery period through April 10, 2026, which the Board granted, but GSA still filed its Rule 19 brief in compliance with the original March 27, 2026, deadline. On April 10, 2026, Mr. Zhang filed his emergency motion to compel, seeking to require GSA to produce responses to various document production requests that he had recently served. The requested documents include vehicle maintenance and usage files from another agency, the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which was apparently the user agency of the vehicle that Mr. Zhang purchased. Less than an hour after Mr. Zhang filed his motion to compel, GSA filed its response to the motion, and, less than fifteen minutes after that, Mr. Zhang filed a reply. Mr. Zhang subsequently provided the Board with a copy of an email that he had sent to GSA counsel on February 12, 2026, in which he had asked GSA to provide him with the following documents: 1. Full maintenance logs and service invoices from the owning agency (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) for the period January 1, 2020 through March 1, 2020, including any documentation relating to the January 21, 2020 “engine check” performed at Honest-1 Auto Care or any other service facility. 2. Any internal maintenance reports, inspection records, or documentation generated following the January 2020 service that relate to the vehicle’s mechanical condition or its removal from service. CBCA 8787 3 3. Documentation reflecting how the auction description for this vehicle was prepared, including communications, internal emails, or condition reports relied upon in preparing the listing. Mr. Zhang reformatted those requests and resent them to GSA in a slightly modified form by email on March 16, 2026. Mr. Zhang also provided the Board with a copy of another email dated April 3, 2026, in which he had provided GSA with a new set of production requests that repeated some earlier requests but added new specific requests: 1. The “Owning Agency” Data: All records, emails, or forms provided by the U.S.