S.J. Amoroso Construction Co. v. United States
26 Cl. Ct. 759 | United States Court of Claims | 1992
What This Case Means for Subcontractors
S.J. Amoroso Construction challenged the Army Corps of Engineers' interpretation of the Buy American Act (BAA) on a San Francisco commissary project. The court ruled that BAA compliance must be checked for each individual piece of material delivered to the site, not calculated as an overall average. Amoroso had to replace about one-third of its structural steel and pay for the extra compliance work. This decision matters because it means you cannot offset foreign materials with domestic ones—every single item must meet the domestic content requirement.
Key Takeaways
- •Check BAA compliance item-by-item, not as a project total. One non-compliant piece can trigger replacement costs.
- •Budget extra time and money for compliance documentation and testing of each material delivery to avoid costly rework.
- •Flow down BAA requirements to your suppliers in writing and require them to certify compliance for each shipment, not just the contract overall.
Each individual piece of construction material delivered must comply individually with BAA requirements.
Frequently Asked Question
Can I use some foreign materials if most of my steel is domestic to meet Buy American Act requirements?
No. The court ruled that each individual piece of material must independently comply with BAA domestic content rules. You cannot average or offset foreign materials against domestic ones. Every item delivered to the site must meet the requirement separately, or you risk having to replace non-compliant materials at your own cost.
Related Cases
Gall v. United States
Appellate courts must review all sentences under an abuse-of-discretion standard regardless of whether they fall inside or outside the Guidelines range, and cannot require extraordinary circumstances to justify sentences outside the range.
Piotrowski v. City of Houston
Municipal liability under § 1983 requires proof of official policy as the moving force; isolated employee misconduct insufficient, and equal protection claim time-barred.
Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena
Federal race-based classifications must be analyzed under strict scrutiny regardless of whether they benefit or burden minorities, and the Fifth Amendment's equal protection obligation equals the Fourteenth Amendment's.
Northeastern Florida Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America v. City of Jacksonville
An association of contractors has standing to challenge a minority set-aside ordinance without proving any member would have won a contract absent the ordinance; the injury is denial of equal competitive opportunity, not loss of a specific contract.
In Re Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.
The Civil Commitment of Sexually Violent Predators Act is civil, not criminal, and does not violate due process even when applied to incompetent defendants.
Edwin P. Harrison, and United States of America, Party in Interest v. Westinghouse Savannah River Company
The Fourth Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal, holding that the False Claims Act broadly reaches false statements made to obtain government contract approval, not just false payment claims themselves.