In this economic environment we are seeing a lot of bid protests on public works construction projects. Public contracts requires the public entity to assure construction contract awards are subject to fair competive bidding.
The goal of competitive bidding in public contracting is to guard against favoritism, improvidence, extravagance, fraud, and corruption; to prevent waste of public funds; and to obtain the best economic result for the public.
Bid protests arise when an unsuccessful bidder challenges a contract award to another bidder. The challenge could be the party awarded the contract gained an advantage over other bidders because the winning bidder did not provide a bid that conformed to the contract specifications.
Another ground for a bid protest is the awarding body did not award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder.
Courts have held that a lowest responsible bidder who has been denied a contract has no right to damages; however a contract award to one bidder may be restrained upon the petition of another bidder where such award would constitute an abuse of discretion by the awarding entity.
In a case called Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corp. v. Superior Court, (1962) 208 Cal. App.2nd 802at pp. 824-826 the court held it is within the court’s power to determine whether a public official has abused his discretion in awarding a contract pursuant to illegal and invalid specifications that fail to provide for full and competitive bidding.
California bid protest cases have expressed the view that a writ of mandate will be granted if the contract award constitutes an abuse of discretion.
Robert G. Klein, Esq. is a Los Angeles trademark attorney, business litigation attorney lawyer and a Los Angeles business lawyer who specializes in trademark infringement, copyright infringement, business torts, breach of contract actions and unfair competition. He feels it is important to hire a Los Angeles trademark lawyer and a Los Angeles business lawyer if one is involved in litigation in that locale. Robert G. Klein is a prominent Los Angeles business attorney and is available for consultation on matters involving trademark infringement, copyright infringement, breach of contract cases, business torts, fraud, and business law matters. He has successfully obtained many multi-million dollar jury verdicts. Many of Mr. Klein’s court decisions have been published as case authority and he has appeared before the United States Supreme Court for oral argument. Mr. Klein has also published “Consumer List: Trade Secret or Fair Game?”, which is an article published in the Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine. Los Angeles trademark infringement attorney Robert G. Klein can be reached at (213) 996-8508 or visit our web site at http://www.kleinlitigation.com
