Correctional Medical Services Inc. v. Department of Corrections, A-5334-10T4; Appellate Division; opinion by Payne, P.J.A.D.; decided and approved for publication May 22, 2012. Before Judges Payne, Reisner and Hayden. On appeal from the Law Division, Mercer County, L-904-09. [Sat below: Judge Feinberg.] DDS No. 11-2-6361 [32 pp.]
Plaintiff Correctional Medical Services (CMS) provided medical and dental services to New Jersey’s prison inmates under a series of contracts administered by the Department of Corrections (DOC). The contract covering April 2005 through September 2008 contained performance indicators by which CMS’s performance would be gauged. It also permitted the deduction of liquidated damages for substandard performance from payments due CMS. However, in August 2005, the regional vice president of CMS wrote to a DOC assistant commissioner memorializing his understanding that the DOC had agreed to impose liquidated damages only for CMS’s “continued failure to progress in program improvement efforts.”
