Robbins, who had worked at an Air Force Base for 10 years, bid on a grounds maintenance contract at the base.  When it realized the amount of acreage in the solicitation was wrong it notified the contracting officer who told Robins to bid on the solicitation as written.  After getting the award it sought an equitable adjustment of $5 million based on the defective specifications.  Citing US vs Spearin that ruled a contractor must show it was misled by errors in the specifications, the Court rejected Robins’ claim saying there was no evidence Robins was misled by the inaccurate acreage estimates at the time it submitted its bid.  If this was a situation where the contractor identified a possible error in the contract and the government led the contractor to believe there was no error recovery may be possible but the contractor’s work at the base for 10 years indicated they must have known the accurate acreage (Robins Maintenance Inc. v. United States, Fed Cir., 01-5010).

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