Dive Brief:

• Metcalf Construction Co. Inc. had a contract to build housing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, and an inspection Metcalf was required to do before starting work found that expansive soils were more significant than the government had said in a report it issued when asking for bids.
• The government and Metcalf wound up in court about a "differing conditions" provision in the contract and whether the Navy should pay more.
• The government said its soils report was just for information, not for engineering use, and it did not pay extra expenses Metcalf ran into for over-excavating some sites and for using more expensive concrete to solve the expansion problem in others.

Dive Insight:

The upshot of the appeals court's decision in the case was that contractors should be able to put more weight on information they get before bidding, so they should be able to collect on expenses caused when actual conditions differ a lot from the preliminary information.