U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz last week released a public copy of an order refusing the government’s request to place a time limit on Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley’s stay as landlord at the Paducah Site in Kentucky
The company seeks to reverse the judge’s ruling the company is too large for the potential five-year, $160-million contract DOE awarded the incumbent in December 2020.
The two-page order was released June 16 after Dietz said the parties had not requested any redactions in the decision initially issued under seal on June 2.
Dietz has stayed enactment of his April order finding Swift & Staley too large to meet the Small Business Administration size standards for the set-aside contract for the new Infrastructure Support Services deal at Paducah. The incumbent appealed the size determination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The federal government had asked Judge Dietz to modify his April injunction to place an end-date of March 2023 on the existing Swift & Staley contract, which dates to October 2015 and is currently worth $298 million. Swift & Staley has received a number of extensions during the ongoing litigation and was scheduled as of Friday to stay on site at least through July.
“At this early stage of SSI’s [Swift & Staley Inc.] appeal, there is no evidence that SSI is failing to pursue its appeal in an expeditious manner,” Dietz said in this month’s order. “Further, aside from its speculative arguments in support of its proposed expiration date for the injunctive relief, the government has not provided any new information or pointed to any material change in the circumstances that warrants such a modification to the existing injunction.”
The claims court judge has said Swift & Staley could ultimately go out of business — even if it wins its appeal — if the contract ends prematurely.
