The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed an Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals decision holding the contractor was not estopped from rejecting improperly issued delivery orders, because the government satisfied the elements of the correct test for equitable estoppel. The government appealed the board's ruling the contractor was entitled to an equitable adjustment for performing DOs under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (09-2 BCA ¶34,150). The disputed DOs were issued as e-mail attachments, which did not comply with the contract's ordering clause. Although the contractor had performed several prior DOs that were also issued by e-mail without objection, the board ruled the government did not establish two of four elements of estoppel established in Rel-Reeves, Inc. v. U.S. (FedCl 1976) 22 CCF ¶80,492, because the contractor did not appreciate the contract's e-mail restrictions, whereas the government was charged with knowing the contents of its contracts and therefore could not be ignorant of the e-mail prohibition.
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