Are federal agencies responsible for their negligent estimates? Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Agility Defense and Government Services, Inc.'s claim under the Negligent Estimates Theory in government contracting. In Agility Defense & Government Services, Inc v. U.S., a contractor, Agility Defense, bid on and won a contract to dispose of surplus military property for the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS), a department within DLA (Defense Logistics Agency).

Historically, the DRMS had run their own reutilization, demilitarization, and reduction to scrap process, but began contracting the process in 2007. Agility and two other contractors were awarded contracts of which Agility was awarded a contract to operate six facilities. As part of the contract, awardees could sell any scrap they salvaged, without reservation, to offset costs. As part of the solicitation and in response to requests for workload history and projections, DRMS provided a website link to historical data.