Originally published by Matthew DeVries on Best Practices Construction Law blog.
There’s “new.” And there’s “new to you.” And there’s “refurbished new.” And there’s “open box special new.” And there’s “floor display model new.” But when it comes to contract specifications requiring “new” equipment, one court looked to a dictionary to define it as “never used before” and “free of significant damage.”
In the case, Reliable Contracting Group, LLC v. Department of Veterans Affairs, 779 F.3d 1329 (Fed. Cir. 2015), the Government entered an agreement with the Contractor to install three back-up generators. The contract specifications required equipment to be "new and of the most suitable grade for the purpose intended, unless otherwise specifically provided".
A dispute arose over the nature of the equipment supplied because the contract did not define the word, “new.” Furthermore, Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.211-5, which was incorporated into the contract, requires that supplies “new, reconditioned or remanufactured,” and it defined “new” to include that the supplies be “composed of previously unused components.”
(more on how the court defined new and what the contractor had to do...)
