Court Dismisses Bid Protest Against the City of Harrisonburg

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Angela France

A Virginia trial court recently dismissed a contractor’s bid protest against the City of Harrisonburg on jurisdictional grounds. In the case of General Excavation, Inc. v. City of Harrisonburg, the contractor’s bid was rejected along with all the other bids. Thus, the Court determined that there wasn’t any award for a bidder to challenge under the Virginia Public Procurement Act.

The bid by General Excavation, Inc. (GEI) for the road-improvement contract worth approximately $20 million was one of seven rejected by the City. After the City declined to award the contract to anyone, GEI filed suit pursuant to the Virginia Public Procurement Act and the City’s own purchasing manual alleging that the City’s action was done solely to avoid awarding GEI the project.

However, the Court noted that the plain language of the Virginia Public Procurement Act allows contractors to bring an action in the appropriate circuit court challenging only a proposed award or the award of a contract – not the rejection of all bids.

Although the alleged conduct of the City appeared to be in violation of Virginia Code section 2.2-4319, which allows a public body to reject all bids but not solely to avoid awarding a contract to a particular bidder, the Court declined to exercise jurisdiction. It noted that the General Assembly created relief mechanisms for those aggrieved under the Public Procurement Act, and it would not enlarge the scope of those remedial statutes.

It should be noted that the City claimed that its decision had nothing to do with a desire not to award GEI the project.  Rather, the City official recommended the rejection of all bids based on the city, state and federal transportation representatives’ determination that the contract documents were probably not clearly understood by the bidders.  However, the Court's interpretation of the Virginia Public Procurement Act's jurisdiction eliminated the contractor's ability to receive a fair and impartial hearing on whether the City's actions were opportunistic and an unlawful rejection of all bids.  
 

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