Five big-name insurers are facing a lawsuit over $2.7 million in unpaid bond claims tied to a US military munitions cleanup project in Guam.
Relyant Global, a Tennessee-based contractor, filed the complaint on July 18 in the District of Guam, alleging that it’s still owed for work done under a federally funded Navy project. The suit names Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, and Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland as defendants. All three had issued a payment bond for the project’s prime contractor, Granite-Obayashi Joint Venture, or GOJV.
The job seemed straightforward at first. Relyant was hired to perform munitions and explosives cleanup – known in the business as MEC remediation – at Camp Blas, where the Navy is building out infrastructure. The subcontract, labeled No. 08.0040, fell under a larger federal contract, Prime Contract No. N62742-17-C-1324.
According to the complaint, project materials supplied by GOJV, including a Navy explosives safety document, suggested that workers would find between 600 and 1,800 buried “anomalies” per acre. These could be leftover ordnance, scrap metal, or other debris.
But Relyant says the numbers were way off. In one section of the site – the 16B Soil Piles – it claims it uncovered 7,779 anomalies per acre. In another area known as the F and F Extension Trash Pits, the figure jumped to nearly 14,800. The company says it had to scale up manpower, equipment, and time to handle the increased workload.
It submitted two formal requests for extra payment – one for about $1.66 million and another for just over $1.1 million. Combined, Relyant is asking for $2,759,392.30. When payment didn’t come from GOJV, Relyant turned to the insurers behind the bond.
The lawsuit leans on the Miller Act, which requires prime contractors on federal jobs to post bonds to ensure that subcontractors get paid. It also cites language from Relyant’s subcontract and federal clauses that deal with differing site conditions.
There’s no decision yet. But for insurers backing federal construction work, this one hits familiar territory. Bonds written for routine cleanup jobs can quickly turn into major liabilities when boots hit the ground and conditions shift. And when subcontractors start chasing payment, the guarantees behind those bonds move from the margins to the center of the story.
