Clauses · FAR · Insurance and liability
FAR 52.246-24 Limitation of Liability-High-Value Items
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
No mandate and no subcontract paragraph. Like its two siblings this clause is RELIEF, not duty — it rests on the Government's decision to self-insure (46.803(a)) — so a prime passes it down only to the extent it holds the shield itself. The corpus shows both a right use and a wrong one. ForceProtection/GDLS (2007) carries it in an MRAP vehicle subcontract, where unit cost sits far above the 46.802 guideline: the one document in the corpus where the clause is substantively the correct member of the trio. CACI's 2020 labor-hour matrix checks 52.246-23, -24 and -25 all three on a services order, which 46.805(a)(4) answers with -25 alone — high-value or not, the other two require delivered end items.
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition FEB 1997 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Nothing to send now
It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.
The bill for Government property damaged after acceptance by a defect in what you delivered — and on a designated high-value item that bill includes the item itself
FAR 52.246-24(a)
When it is used
FAR 46.805(a)(2): contracts requiring delivery of high-value items, when the amount is expected to exceed the SAT ($350k) and the contract is subject to subpart 46.8. FAR 46.802 defines the item, and the definition has two limbs that must BOTH hold: a high unit cost, normally over $100,000 per unit (the section's own examples are aircraft, engines, communication systems, computer systems, missiles and ships), AND designation as a high-value item by the contracting officer. The designation is the operative fact — an expensive item the CO never designated is not a high-value item, and takes 52.246-23. FAR 46.801 gates the whole subpart: it does not apply to commercial products or commercial services, and applies only to contracts other than those for information technology (including telecommunications), construction, architect-engineer services, and maintenance or rehabilitation of real property. Mixed orders — high-value items plus other end items — take BOTH this clause and 52.246-23, with the high-value items identified by line item and Alternate I of this clause inserted (46.805(a)(3)). Where the order also requires services, 46.805(a)(5) adds 52.246-25. Below the SAT the clause is not required, but the CO may insert it at the contractor's specific request and may seek a price reduction for doing so (46.805(b)).
Read closely
One word separates this from 52.246-23: property is covered including the supplies delivered, where the ordinary clause says excluding. It belongs on end items the contracting officer designated high-value under FAR 46.802, and on such a line the gap between the two clauses is the price of the item. The carve-outs are (b) willful misconduct or bad faith by managerial personnel, (c) insurance or a self-insurance reserve you hold, (d)(1) every correction or replacement duty arising elsewhere in the contract, (d)(2) the contracting officer's election between what a fix would have cost you and other equitable relief where repair is not feasible, and (e) rights under the data warranty, flight risk and Government property clauses.
Alternates
Alt I · APR 1984
FAR 46.805(a)(3) — where the contract requires delivery of both high-value items and other end items, the CO inserts both 52.246-23 and 52.246-24, identifies the high-value items by line item, and uses this alternate.
Alternate I inserts a preamble before paragraph (a) confining the clause to the items the contract identifies as subject to it — the form used on a mixed order, where high-value line items take this clause and the rest take 52.246-23. It narrows which items are covered and, like the basic clause, asks for nothing to be sent.
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.246-24 and its Alternate I, FAR 46.805(a)(2), (a)(3) and (b), FAR 46.801, FAR 46.802, FAR 46.803, and FAR 52.212-4(p); RFO Part 46 model text (verified 2026-08-05)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.