United Communities, LLC v. United States, 20-1220

United Communities, LLC contracted with the Air Force/Army under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative to lease land and operate privatized housing at Joint Base McGuire–Dix.
United Communities filed suit alleging breach of contract, breach of implied duty of good faith and fair dealing, and a Fifth Amendment takings claim.
The court dismissed the complaint under RCFC 12(b)(6): plaintiff failed to plead a duty for the contract claims and failed to allege a cognizable property interest for the takings claim.
United Communities moved for reconsideration under RCFC 59(a), arguing the court erred by not granting leave to amend before dismissing; it relied on a single-sentence request in its response to defendant’s motion asking for 14 days to amend if dismissal were ordered.
The court denied reconsideration, holding the single-sentence, unsupported request did not comply with RCFC 7(b)(1)’s requirement to state particularized grounds for relief and thus was not properly before the court; the court found no manifest injustice.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether court should have granted leave to amend before dismissal	United Communities argued it requested leave (one sentence) and dismissal should be without prejudice so it could amend	US argued no properly supported motion to amend was presented and court did not abuse discretion	Denied — one-sentence request was not a proper motion; no abuse of discretion
Whether the request in the response complied with RCFC 7(b)(1)	Request sufficed as alternative relief and was timely	Request failed to state grounds or proposed amendments as RCFC 7(b)(1)(B) requires	Denied — request failed RCFC 7(b)(1) and thus was not properly before the court
Whether failure to rule on the amendment request warrants reconsideration/manifest injustice	Reconsideration required to prevent injustice from denial of opportunity to amend	No manifest injustice; reconsideration standards not met	Denied — plaintiff did not show extraordinary circumstances or manifest injustice

Biery v. United States, 818 F.3d 704 (Fed. Cir.) (grounds for reconsideration and discretionary standards)
Caldwell v. United States, 391 F.3d 1226 (Fed. Cir.) (extraordinary circumstances required for reconsideration)
Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, 554 U.S. 471 (2008) (motions for reconsideration cannot relitigate matters that could have been raised earlier)
Meehan v. United Consumers Club Franchising Corp., 312 F.3d 909 (8th Cir. 2002) (no abuse in failing to invite amended complaint when plaintiff did not move to amend)
Fru-Con Constr. Corp. v. United States, 44 Fed. Cl. 298 (1999) (discussing standards for motions for reconsideration)