Davis Wright Tremaine LLP v. State

• Decision Date: 09 May 2014
• Docket Number: No. S–15004.,S–15004.
• Citation: 324 P.3d 293
• Parties: DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION, Appellee.
• Court: Alaska Supreme Court

324 P.3d 293

DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP, Appellant,

v.STATE of Alaska, DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION, Appellee.

No. S–15004.

Supreme Court of Alaska.

May 9, 2014.

Robert K. Stewart Jr., Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Anchorage, and John Parnass, Pacifica Law Group, Seattle, Washington, for Appellant.

Rachel L. Witty, Assistant Attorney General, Anchorage, and Michael C. Geraghty, Attorney General, Juneau, for Appellee.

Susan Orlansky and Jeffrey M. Feldman, Feldman Orlansky & Sanders, Anchorage, for Amicus Curiae Van Ness Feldman, A Professional Corporation.

Before: FABE, Chief Justice, WINFREE, STOWERS, and BOLGER, Justices.

OPINION

WINFREE, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

A state agency issued a request for proposals for legal services. A law firm delivered its proposal after the submission deadline, but the procurement officer accepted the proposal and forwarded it to the evaluation committee. After the agency issued a notice of intent to award that law firm the contract, a second law firm protested, alleging that the evaluation committee made scoring errors and that consideration of the late-filed proposal was barred by a relevant regulation and the request for proposals. The procurement officer sustained the protest, rescinded the original award, and awarded the second law firm the contract. The first law firm then protested, claiming: (1) the second law firm's protest should not have been considered because it was filed after the protest deadline; (2) the first law firm's proposal was properly accepted because the delay in submission was immaterial; and (3) the second law firm's proposal was nonresponsive because that firm lacked a certificate of authority to transact business in Alaska. The procurement officer rejected that protest and the first law firm filed an administrative appeal. The administrative agency denied the appeal, and the first law firm appealed the agency decision to the superior court, which affirmed the administrative agency ruling.

We conclude that the administrative agency acted reasonably in accepting the second law firm's late-filed protest and deeming that firm's proposal responsive notwithstanding its lack of a certificate of authority. We also conclude that the agency's interpretation that its regulation barred acceptance of the first firm's late-filed proposal is reasonable and consistent with statute. We therefore affirm the superior court's decision upholding the final agency decision.

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGSA. Facts

In early 2011 the State of Alaska, Department of Law, issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for legal counsel to assist the Alaska Energy Authority in obtaining a federal license for construction and operation of a hydroelectric project. The RFP required that, to receive consideration, a proposal must be received at the Department of Law in Juneau by 3:00 p.m. on June 17, 2011. The RFP warned: “It is your responsibility to ensure that the proposal arrives at the address indicated above before the deadline for receipt. Proposals received after 3:00 pm, on June 17, 2011, will be rejected and returned to the sender.” The RFP reserved the State's right to “[r]eject any or all proposals received and to waive deviations from the terms of the RFP if the State determines the deviations are not material.” The RFP also required that “all offerors hold a valid Alaska business license and any necessary applicable professional licenses required by Alaska Statute.” The Department of Law notified prospective offerors on June 14 that the deadline for receipt of proposals had been changed to 3:00 p.m. on June 29.

Van Ness Feldman and six other law firms delivered proposals before the June 29 deadline. Davis Wright Tremaine, in partnership with another law firm, prepared to mail its proposal on June 27, but discovered an error in the cover letter and recalled its office services messenger before the proposal actually was mailed. Davis Wright Tremaine delivered the corrected proposal to the U.S. Postal Service in San Francisco the next day—June 28—for Express Mail delivery to the Department of Law in Juneau. The Postal Service guaranteed delivery by 3:00 p.m. on June 30, the day after submissions were due. After the package mistakenly was routed through Wenatchee, Washington, the Postal Service attempted delivery at the Department of Law on June 30, but found no one available to accept delivery. The Postal Service delivered the package to the Department of Law on July 1.

The Department of Law's procurement officer initially believed she had discretion to waive Davis Wright Tremaine's failure to deliver its proposal before the deadline. Because she believed Davis Wright Tremaine “tried in good faith to make [the] deadline and the delays caused by the [Postal Service] were out-of-[Davis Wright Tremaine's] control,” the procurement officer forwarded Davis Wright Tremaine's proposal to the evaluation committee for consideration.

The reviewers determined that Davis Wright Tremaine's proposal was the “most advantageous” to the State, and on July 22 the Department of Law issued a Notice of Intent to award Davis Wright Tremaine the legal services contract. On August 5 Van Ness Feldman—which had the third-ranked proposal—asked the procurement officer to provide the scoring breakdown, comments from the reviewers, and the two top-scoring proposals. On August 16 Van Ness Feldman filed a protest of the Notice of Intent—11 days after it received the requested documents and 25 days after the Notice of Intent's issuance.

Van Ness Feldman asserted three deficiencies in the Department of Law's evaluation and processing of proposals: (1) the weighting of categories in the scoring was inconsistent with the RFP's terms; (2) the reviewers inappropriately considered an evaluation factor not specified in the RFP; and (3) the procurement officer erred by accepting Davis Wright Tremaine's late-filed proposal in violation of 2 Alaska Administrative Code (AAC) 12.250. ¹ Van Ness Feldman also stated that, although its protest was filed after the ten-day deadline for protests,² it should be considered under the “good cause” exception to the deadline.³

The procurement officer determined Van Ness Feldman had shown good cause under AS 36.30.565(b) and responded to the merits of Van Ness Feldman's protest. The procurement officer, acting on the advice of the Department of Administration's Chief Procurement Officer, concluded that 2 AAC 12.250 prohibited consideration of Davis Wright Tremaine's late-filed proposal and that correction of the scoring errors Van Ness Feldman noted resulted in a determination that Van Ness Feldman's proposal was the most advantageous to the State. The Department of Law issued a second Notice of Intent, declaring Davis Wright Tremaine's proposal nonresponsive for lateness and awarding Van Ness Feldman the legal services contract.

Davis Wright Tremaine timely protested the Notice of Intent awarding Van Ness Feldman the contract, arguing that Van Ness Feldman had failed to show good cause for the late-filed protest and that Van Ness Feldman was not a qualified offeror because Van Ness Feldman did not have a certificate of authority to transact business in Alaska. Davis Wright Tremaine also asserted that the procurement officer should not have rescinded the acceptance of Davis Wright Tremaine's late proposal because (1) the Alaska Administrative Code provides discretion to accept late proposals and (2) the State should follow the federal government's practice of allowing its procurement officers to accept late proposals.

The procurement officer denied Davis Wright Tremaine's protest, explaining that the procurement code did not give her authority to accept late proposals. She also reiterated that Van Ness Feldman's protest was properly considered for good cause and deemed all other grounds of Davis Wright Tremaine's protest moot. The State awarded Van Ness Feldman the legal services contract.

B. Proceedings

Davis Wright Tremaine appealed the procurement officer's denial of its protest to the Commissioner of the Department of Administration.⁴ The Commissioner referred the matter to the Office of Administrative Hearings. ⁵ A hearing officer reviewed briefs from the Department of Law, Davis Wright Tremaine, and Van Ness Feldman, and ultimately recommended that the Commissioner reject the appeal and confirm the contract award to Van Ness Feldman.

The hearing officer rejected Davis Wright Tremaine's argument that the procurement officer erred in considering Van Ness Feldman's late-filed protest, concluding that the procurement officer properly exercised her discretion in finding good cause to consider the protest. The hearing officer found that, although Van Ness Feldman did not show sufficient reason for the delay in filing, Van Ness Feldman raised serious and substantial claims that the procurement code had been violated—the assertions that proposals were not evaluated consistently with the RFP criteria and that a late proposal was wrongly accepted provided good cause to consider the late protest.

The hearing officer also rejected Davis Wright Tremaine's argument that the procurement code and RFP did not prohibit the procurement officer from accepting Davis Wright Tremaine's late proposal. The hearing officer interpreted 2 AAC 12.250 to mean that “absent an explicit provision in the RFP, a late proposal may not be accepted unless the delay is due to an error of the contracting agency.” After finding that the RFP did not contain such an explicit provision, the hearing officer concluded that “the procurement officer ought not to have accepted [Davis Wright Tremaine's] late proposal.”

Finally, the hearing officer rejected the argument that Van Ness Feldman could not be awarded the contract because it lacked a certificate of authority. The hearing officer noted that the RFP did not require offerors to possess a certificate and that “the lack of a certificate does not prevent [Van Ness...