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Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 1 today (and 2 NFP)

For publication opinions today (1):

In City of Fort Wayne v. Pierce Manufacturing, a 23-page opinion, Judge Sharpnack writes:

The City of Fort Wayne (“City”) appeals the trial court’s grant of a motion for summary judgment filed by Pierce Manufacturing, Inc., (“Pierce”) and the trial court’s denial of a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment filed by the City. The City raises two issues, one of which we find dispositive and restate as whether the trial court erred by denying the City’s motion to dismiss based upon Pierce’s lack of standing to contest the City’s award of a contract to another bidder. We reverse. * * *

Ind. Code § 5-22-3-6 clearly provides that Pierce does not have a property interest in the award of the contract. Furthermore, we fail to see how Pierce had a personal interest in the City’s determination and any pecuniary interest was speculative and insufficient to establish that it was a “person aggrieved” under the Public Purchasing Statute. Pierce argues that this interpretation renders the judicial review provisions of the Public Purchasing Statute ineffective because “if a responsive, yet rejected, bidder were not aggrieved by a violation of the Public Purchasing Statute, it is difficult to imagine who would be.” * * * Given the legislative and judicial history in Indiana regarding unsuccessful bidders challenging the award of a governmental contract, if the legislature had intended to allow unsuccessful bidders to make challenges to a contract award under the Public Purchasing Statute, such an intent could have been made clear.

We conclude that the trial court erred by denying the City’s motion to dismiss because, as an unsuccessful bidder, Pierce was not a “person aggrieved” and did not have standing to appeal the City’s award of the contract under the Public Purchasing Statute.

NFP civil opinions today (0):

NFP criminal opinions today (2) (link to cases):

Jeffrey Jerome Scott v. State of Indiana (NFP)

S.C.T. v. State of Indiana (NFP)

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 5, 2006 11:03 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions