Kenneth E. Curran, Inc. v. State
| Decision Date | 30 December 1965 |
| Parties | KENNETH E. CURRAN, INC. v. STATE. |
| Court | New Hampshire Supreme Court |
Cleveland, Waters & Bass, Concord (Warren E. Waters Concord), for plaintiff.
William Maynard, Atty. Gen., and Alexander J. Kalinski, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Alexander J. Kalinski, Manchester), for defendant.
This action is a bill in equity seeking rescission of a bid and cancellation of a bid bond furnished by the plaintiff in connection with its bid on a construction project. The case was submitted on an agreed statement of facts and all questions of law raised thereby were transferred without a ruling by Loughlin, J.
The agreed statement of facts and stipulated testimony of a witness for the plaintiff, in summary are as follows: The plaintiff is an established building construction contractor. On or about June 25, 1964 the State through its Department of Public Works and Highways advertised for bids for a two-story addition to the existing Silver Hall at Plymouth State Techers College.
At plaintiff's request plans and specifications for the project together with proposal forms to be used by contractors desiring to bid were forwarded to it. The advertisement provided that all bids for this project were to be opened at the office of the Department of Public Works in Concord at 2 P.M. on July 23, 1964. The plaintiff submitted its bid at an hour prior to the opening of the bids in the amount of $102,171.98 and in compliance with the required conditions filed a bid bond in the penal sum of $4,000. Upon the opening of the bids it appeared six other contractors had submitted bids which ranged from $159,957 to $189,945. Prior to advertising for bids, the Department of Public Works had estimated the expected cost at $158,000.
In preparing the plaintiff's bid, the estimation of the costs was made by a former construction superintendent of the plaintiff who had long experience in construction work. He was assisted in estimating the costs of the various items involved by the proposed subcontractor for the project. On the morning of July 23, 1964 at Littleton these several amounts were struck off on an adding machine, which resulted in a total of $86,495.20. To this were added two items which had been omitted and a judgment figure of fifteen per cent which resulted in a grand total for the project of $102,171.98, the bid submitted by plaintiff.
When the bids were opened in Concord on July 23 and it was discovered that the next lowest bid to the plaintiff's was $159,957, plaintiff became concerned because of the discrepancy between its bid and those of the other bidders. On the evening of July 23, 1964 the original estimates were totaled again on the same adding machine and the same total of $86,495 was recorded. That same evening plaintiff's president using the same figures on an electrical adding machine arrived at a grand total of $186,495.20.
The adding machine used by the estimators was hand operated with only ten keys, and was incapable of recording a total of more than $99,999.99, a fact which the plaintiff discovered after the bids were opened. Thus when they had taken a total of all the items which they had fed into the machine, it had disregarded $100,000 and recorded only that part of the total which was above that amount, namely $86,495.20.
On the morning of July 24 plaintiff's president phoned the Deputy Commissioner of Public Works and Highways notifying him of the error in computation that had been made in preparing the bid and advising the bid was withdrawn and requesting that the bid bond be returned and cancelled. He was informed that he would be held to his bid. This was later confirmed in writing by the Commissioner and on August 6, 1964 plaintiff was forwarded a copy of the proposed contract.
On August 10, 1964 the plaintiff through counsel petitioned the Governor and Council setting forth the circumstances of the bid and the cause of the error and requesting a hearing for a review of the action of the Commissioner of Public Works. The petition was denied on August 14. On August 12 plaintiff had returned to the Department of Public Works and Highways the proposed contract with a letter referring to its pending petition before the Governor and Council.
On August 21, 1964 acting on recommendation of the Department, the Governor and Council approved the award of the contract to the second lowers bidder on its bid of $159,957.
While there are a...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
In re Ual Corp.
...(2001); Boise Jr. College District v. Mattefs Construction Co., 92 Idaho 757, 450 P.2d 604, 608-09 (1969); Kenneth E. Curran, Inc. v. State, 106 N.H. 558, 215 A.2d 702, 703-04 (1965); Maryland Casualty Co. v. Krasnek, 174 So.2d 541, 543-44 (Fla.1965); City of Syracuse v. Sarkisian Brothers,......
-
MJ McGough Company v. Jane Lamb Memorial Hospital
...curiam, 344 F.2d 331 (4th Cir. 1965); Smith & Lowe Const. Co. v. Herrera, 79 N.M. 239, 442 P.2d 197 (1968); Kenneth E. Curran, Inc. v. State, 106 N.H. 558, 215 A.2d 702 (1965); Bd. of Water & Sewer Commissioners of Mobile v. Spriggs, 274 Ala. 155, 146 So.2d 872 (1962); City of Baltimore v. ......
-
Midway Excavators, Inc. v. Chandler
...(1926). Moreover, in the case of a unilateral mistake the remedy is rescission, not reformation. Fitch supra; see Curran Company v. State, 106 N.H. 558, 215 A.2d 702 (1965); 3 J. POMEROY, A TREATISE ON EQUITY JURISPRUDENCE § 870a (5th ed. 1941). Therefore, the plaintiff in this case, which ......
-
People ex rel. Department of Public Works and Bldgs. v. South East Nat. Bank of Chicago
...by a fold in the paper. The reviewing court denied reformation of the contract but granted rescission. In Kenneth E. Curran, Inc. v. State, 106 N.H. 558, 215 A.2d 702 (1965) an error resulted from the fact that the adding machine used in compiling the figures determining the bid was incapab......