Omission Impossible: The Christian Doctrine

Recently, there have been several court decisions that relied on the Christian Doctrine to incorporate a clause into a contract when omitted in the initial written contract. The term is associated with a 1963 court case (G.L. Christian & Assocs., 312 F.2d at 426) which concluded that certain regulations are law, binding the contract parties, and do not need to be physically incorporated into the contract.

Since 1963, the application of the Christian Doctrine to certain contracts has been challenged by or supported by the judicial system. Contractors should be concerned that after the successful award of a contract, a clause that was specifically omitted could reappear at some point in the future and raise challenges with compliance or administration of a contract.

Please join Bill Walter, Managing Partner of DHG Government Contracting Advisory and Doug Patin, Partner at Bradley, as they discuss this interesting and historic topic and how it may impact you as a government contractor. The two will discuss: 

• G.L. Christian & Associates; 
• Recent court decisions impacted; 
• Application to prime contracts and subcontracts; and 
• Points to help mitigate risk in negotiation contracts.