Boston Edison Co. v. US

Sep 28: In the U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, Case No. 2010-5136 & 2010-5137. Appealed from the United States Court of Federal Claims. The Appeals Court explains that this is another in a series of cases dealing with the consequences of the Federal government's ongoing breach of its contractual obligation to collect and dispose of the nation's nuclear waste. This case involves the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, MA.

 

    The Appeals Court said, "Our recent precedent dictates the outcome of two of the issues raised in this litigation -- the right of a non-breaching party contracting with the government to recover indirect overhead costs associated with mitigation activities, and the right of such a party to recover the costs of financing those activities. We affirm the trial court's judgment on both of those issues. There is one novel question presented by this case: whether the sale of a nuclear plant and the transfer of a decommissioning fund affects the rights of the buyer and seller to recover future damages for the government's partial breach of contract. As to that issue, we reverse the trial court and hold that a sale of assets by a non-breaching party does not alter the settled common law principle that when the breaching party has not repudiated the contract and is still expected to perform, damages are not recoverable until they are incurred as a result of the breach. In addition, we address issues involving the award of damages in connection with fees paid to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and we remand for further proceedings on that issue."

 

    Access the complete opinion (click here). [#Haz/Nuclear, #CAFed]

 

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