Plumbing, Heating, Piping & Air Conditioning Contractors Ass'n, Inc., v. New York State Thruway Authority

• Citation: 5 N.Y.2d 420,185 N.Y.S.2d 534
• Parties: , 158 N.E.2d 238 In the Matter of PLUMBING, HEATING, PIPING AND AIR CONDITIONING CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION, INC., Appellant, et al., Intervenor-Petitioner, v. NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY AUTHORITY, et al., Respondents, and Rocklyn Construction Corp., Intervenor-Respondent.
• Decision Date: 09 April 1959
• Court: New York Court of Appeals

Page 534

185 N.Y.S.2d 534

5 N.Y.2d 420, 158 N.E.2d 238

In the Matter of PLUMBING, HEATING, PIPING AND AIR

CONDITIONING CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION, INC., Appellant, et al., Intervenor-Petitioner, v. NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY AUTHORITY, et al., Respondents, and Rocklyn Construction Corp., Intervenor-Respondent.

Court of Appeals of New York.

April 9, 1959.

Joseph J. Casey, Albany, and Charles H. Tuttle, New York City, for appellant.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen. (George H. Rothlauf and Paxton Blair, Albany, of counsel), for respondents.

Edwin B. Wolchok, New York City, for Rocklyn Construction Corp., intervenor-respondent.

FULD, Judge.

The respondent New York State Thruway Authority advertised for bids receivable in January of 1957, for the construction of six buildings at various locations along the Thruway for use as police barracks. The specifications for the work provided for the construction, plumbing, heating and ventilating, electrical and site development work to be performed under a single contract for each of the six projects. A contractors association brought this proceeding to compel the Thruway Authority and the respondent Superintendent of Public Works (1) to withdraw the notice to bidders which had been published and (2) to publish a new one containing separate specifications so as to permit separate bidding on each of the three subdivisions of work specified in section 135 of the State Finance Law, ¹ Consol.Laws, c. 56. Insofar as pertinent, it provides:

'Every officer, board, department, commission or commissions charged with the duty of preparing specifications or awarding or entering into contracts for the erection [or] construction * * * of buildings, for the state, when the entire cost of such work shall exceed twenty-five thousand dollars must have prepared separate specifications for each of the following three subdivisions of the work to be performed:

'1. Plumbing and gas fitting.

'2. Steam heating, hot water heating, ventilating and air conditioning apparatus.

'3. Electric wiring and standard illuminating fixtures. Such specifications must be so drawn as to permit separate and independent bidding upon each of the above three subdivisions of work. All contracts hereafter awarded by the state or a department, board, commissioner or officer thereof, for the erection, construction or alteration of buildings, or any part thereof, shall award the three subdivisions of the above specified work separately to responsible and reliable persons, firms or corporations engaged in these classes of work.'

Asserting that the statute does not apply to the Thruway Authority, the respondents moved to dismiss the proceeding. The court at Special Term granted the motion, the Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the resulting order and we granted leave to appeal to afford us an opportunity to decide whether the Authority is to be deemed a 'board' or 'department' of the State within the meaning of section 135.

The Thruway Authority was created by a special act of the Legislature (L.1950, ch. 143) as a 'public corporation' to construct and maintain a thruway system (Public Authorities Law, Consol.Laws, c. 43-A, §§ 352, 353). Although created by the State and subject to dissolution by the State, these public corporations are independent and autonomous, deliberately designed to be able to function with a freedom and flexibility not permitted to an ordinary State board, department or commission. (See State and Local Government in New York, New York State Constitutional Convention Committee Report [1938], Vol. 4, p. 189 et seq.; N. Y. Co-ordination Comm. Staff Report on Public Authorities under New York State, N.Y.Legis.Doc., 1956, No. 46, p. 54 et seq., p. 554 et seq.) The corporate entity is interposed, it has been said (1951 Atty.Gen. 130, 132), both to 'protect the State from liability and enable public projects to be carried on free from restrictions otherwise applicable.'

Indeed, the statute creating the Thruway Authority is replete with provisions which emphasize its separate and independent existence and serve to distinguish it sharply from the type of State board or department which would be subject to the requirements of the State Finance Law with respect to bidding. We note, simply for purposes of illustration--for it by no means exhausts the list--that the Authority is expressly empowered to 'make contracts,' 'acquire * * * real property', 'borrow money and issue [its own] negotiable * * * obligations' without public referendum and, significantly, 'accept any gifts or * * * grant of funds or property * * * from the state of New York' (§ 354) and become 'indebted to the state' (§ 357). The notes and bonds issued by the Authority are its primary obligation, the State's obligation being merely that of a guarantor (§ 366), and only to the maximum amount of $500,000,000 (N.Y.Const., art. X, § 6). If as asserted there was an identity between Authority and State it is difficult to perceive how the Authority could receive gifts from, or become indebted to, the State and, quite obviously, the latter's...