Virginia Engineering Co. v. United States

The plaintiff’s claim is based upon a misstatement by the Government, on a contract drawing, as to the level of the ground water at the site of a building which the plaintiff constructed for the Government. The drawing was one of, the papers submitted to prospective bidders for the contract, to enable them to compute their bids intelligently without feeling obliged to assume the possibility of adverse conditions which did not in fact exist, and raise their bids accordingly. The statement on the drawing was that the level of the ground water had been found at elevation —3 to —5 in ten test…