THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 21, 1995 TAG: 9512210388
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
A federal judge has abruptly ruled against the government in a case that could require the Pentagon to pay General Dynamics Corp. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. as much as $1 billion each in a dispute over the Navy's A-12 jet.
Saying he had heard enough, Judge Robert H. Hodges Jr. of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ended the trial Tuesday after three weeks. He ruled that he did not need to hear more witnesses to find in favor of the defense contractors in a complicated, 4-year-old case.
He scheduled arguments for Jan. 5 on exactly how much money the Navy owes the companies.
McDonnell Douglas was pleased with the court's ``conclusion that termination of the A-12 contract was for the convenience of the government,'' company spokesman Tom Williams said. General Dynamics also said it was pleased with the ruling, but the Navy had no immediate comment.
The companies, equal partners in the contract, have claimed they are owed $2 billion, including interest, General Dynamics spokesman Ray Lewis said.
Wall Street and defense industry executives have speculated for a year that the two firms would prevail in the case and generally guessed each would collect about $350 million.
The case stems from cancellation of the A-12 jet in 1991 when it was a year behind schedule, $1 billion over budget and suffering from technical problems.
The Pentagon ordered the plane ``terminated for default,'' meaning the contractors were at fault and would not be repaid funds they had advanced for the project.
The companies sued and argued that the reason for the termination be changed to ``for the convenience of the government,'' meaning they were not at fault and could seek repayment of money they lost on the contract.
They argued that the government failed to provide them with key data about technologies of radar-evading planes that had already been developed and have prevailed in a number of previous phases of the case.
The case had been expected to last several more months.
Judge Hodges said a Navy engineer who testified for the Pentagon had based his findings ``on little more than whimsy'' and concluded that ``it is manifestly clear that defendant (the government) cannot prove its case.'' by CNB