Three Year Statute of Limitations Confirmed

Last fall, a Civilian Board of Contract Appeals(CBCA) ruling confirmed that GSA had a three year statute of limitation in which to issue Notices of Overcharge (NOC) on shipments, overruling GSA’s contention that they had up to ten years in which to issues overcharges. The case in question (CBCA 1317-RATE) involved overcharges against Union Pacific Railroad, but the decision affects personal property shipments as well, since the laws governing this topic cover all transportation payments.

This ruling is important because last year some of our customers were issued NOCs beyond the three year statue of limitations. When we questioned GSA about the timeliness of the overcharges, they claimed they had up to ten years to issue NOCs.  This is the same argument that they used in the Union Pacific (UP) case, which the CBCA strongly rejected. Here is a portion of the CBCA’s ruling:

Although the Government sent UP a “Notice of Overcharge” for each BOL, it now contends that the amounts claimed are “ordinary debts” under 31 U.S.C. § 3716, which provides a ten-year statute of limitation for offsets, and are not “overcharges” under 31 U.S.C. § 3726, which provides a three-year limitation for deductions. This argument is confusing and illogical.

While we were confident that the US Code was pretty clear on the three year statute of limitation, it is a relief to see that the CBCA has concurred with our interpretation. Having to defend ten year old invoices against notices of overcharge was not something we wanted to do.

Related Posts

1. Notices of Overcharge Being Issued on DPS Shipments - April 7th, 2009
2. DPS System Problems: Click Count Limitations Are Threat to Human Users - June 9th, 2011
3. One Year of AccuBill - July 18th, 2006