Postal Service Justified in Terminating Contracts Despite Mistake; PSBCA No. 6583, 6584, Cook Mail Carriers, Inc and Patricia Joy Sasnett v. United States Postal Service

Appeals of the contracting officer’s termination of two mail transportation contracts is denied, where the contracts reserved the agency’s right to terminate the contracts without financial penalty and where the contracting officer based his decisions on some inaccurate information, but nonetheless was within his rights to terminate the contracts in accordance with an agency directive; and claims seeking additional payment arising from the terminations are denied, where a clause requiring a 50 percent payment for a canceled trip applied only to work under the contract, and did not apply to trips that would have been performed had the contracts not been terminated.