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Occasionally Charles Rumbaugh send the group additional notes between Updates. This is one of those notes.
January 21, 1999
Department of the Army v. Blue Fox, Inc.
No. 97-1642
Full text: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/97-1642.ZS.html
Yesterday the United States Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (opinion by Rehnquist) and held the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 USC s 702, does not nullify the long-settled rule that, unless waived by Congress, sovereign immunity bars creditors from enforcing liens on Government property. Blue Fox, subcontractor on Army project, brought action to enforce an equitable lien against the United States to recover money primary contractor owed but failed to pay. The court reasoned that although the APA waives the Government's immunity from actions seeking relief "other than money damages," the waiver must be strictly construed, in terms of scope, in the sovereign's favor and must be "unequivocally expressed" in the statutory text. Blue Fox does not meet this high standard.
© 1999 Charles E. Rumbaugh
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