Alleged failure to comply with disclosed accounting practices; Statute of Limitations

Our attorneys successfully represented Raytheon Company against a Government claim of US$17M for an alleged failure to comply with a disclosed cost accounting practice.  The Board ruled that the Contract Disputes Act Statute of Limitations barred the claim.  The Board issued a seminal ruling outlining a number of precepts under the Statute of Limitations:  The burden of proof rests with the party assert jurisdiction, not the party invoking the statute of limitations; the constructive knowledge element of claim accrual is subject to an “inherently unknowable” test; a DCAA audit report does not delay claim accrual; the government cannot avert claim accrual by insulating the Contracting Officer from knowledge;  claim accrual “is not suspended simply because the government hay have been delayed in appreciating the implications of what [the contractor] had disclosed.”