“[W]e believe that the case falls, by analogy, under the line of cases raising the issue, not as to the city’s discretion, but as to whether a bidder had a competitive advantage in preparing his bid because of the city’s incomplete or misleading bid specifications or the city’s having negotiated after the formal bid-opening.”
How later courts described this case
- “[W]e believe that the case falls, by analogy, under the line of cases raising the issue, not as to the city’s discretion, but as to whether a bidder had a competitive advantage in preparing his bid because of the city’s incomplete or misleading bid specifications or the city’s having negotiated after the formal bid-opening.”
- ‘[T]he courts will not condone a situation that reveals a clear potential to become a means of favoritism, regardless of the fact that the . . . officials may have acted in good faith in the particular case.’
- here, prohibition against alternative listing was not in statute but in bidding specifications
- ‘Absent evidence of fraud or collusion, our courts have consistently upheld the rejection of all bids and readvertisement for new bids by public officials in the exercise of their informed discretion to decide that it is in the best interest of the public to do so.’
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Concurring and Dissenting Opinion by
Judge Wilkinson, Jr.:
I concur with the majority opinion insofar as it affirms the decision of the Common Pleas Court for I would affirm the entire Decree. In my opinion, the abuse to be avoided by rejecting this bid will not be avoided if the next lower bidder does not receive the contract. I cannot bring myself to believe that the City of Philadelphia, absent fraud, collusion, bad faith or arbitrary action can now exercise its right to reject and perhaps rebid today a contract on which it received a $2,288,340 bid in June of 1977.