177 Mass. 424 | Mass. | 1901
The action is in tort and the substance of the declaration is that the plaintiffs were the lowest responsible bidders for the contract to supply the wooden furniture for the new Worcester court house; that the defendants were the county commissioners of the county and that it was their official duty to award the contract to the plaintiffs, and that contrary to that duty the defendants wrongfully and unlawfully rejected the plaintiffs’ bid and awarded the contract to another bidder.
County commissioners are statutory officers. Their acts with reference to court houses may be under statutes of general application, or under special enactments by which they are designated to perform particular services, in which latter case they do not act as agents of the county. Opinion of the Justices, 167 Mass. 599. Morse v. Norfolk, 170 Mass. 555. Pub. Sts. c. 22, § 20, cl. 1, § 22. St. 1897, c. 137.
The county commissioners of Worcester were given special authority-to provide additional accommodations for the courts of the county sitting at Worcester by several special statutes. The first authorized them to erect an addition to the court house. St. 1896, c. 350. When this act was passed there were upon the land of the county on Main Street in Worcester two court houses, one of granite and one of brick. The second statute authorized the commissioners to sell and remove the brick court house and to erect a building which should provide additional accommodations for the courts of the county sitting at Worcester. St. 1897, c. 449. In the first act the limit of $350,000 was fixed for the expense to be incurred in building the addition including the cost of additional land and in the second act, which repealed the first, the same limit was fixed for the expense which might
After the passage of the act of 1899, the defendants, as county commissioners, issued a notice inviting proposals for wooden furniture for the court house, which notice reserved the right “ to reject any or all proposals.” On April 25, 1899, the plaintiffs submitted a proposal which complied with the requirements of the defendants’ notice. We assume in deciding whether the demurrer was sustained rightly that the plaintiffs were responsible bidders and their proposal the lowest bid.
In the special statute of 1897 was a provision with reference to the contracts for the construction and equipment of the new building, expressed in these words: “ The contracts for said work shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, said commissioners having the right to reject any and all bids.” St. 1897, c. 449, § 3. The plaintiffs contend that this provision was binding upon the defendants in awarding the contract for wooden furniture for which the plaintiffs bid,' and found this contention upon the reference in the statute of 1899 to the statute of 1897.
But the provisions of the earlier statute, as to the making of contracts, dealt only with contracts for the “ construction and
We are therefore of opinion that the defendants, in contracting for the wooden furniture of the new court house under the authority given them by St. 1899, c. 214, were restricted only by the general enactments defining the powers and duties of county commissioners. These did not require them to award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder. Pub. Sts. c. 22, §§ 20, 22. St. 1897, c. 187, §§ 1, 2.
As the defendants were governed by no such statutory requirement as that for which the plaintiffs contend, and as there is no allegation that in rejecting their proposal the defendants acted corruptly or from malice, the demurrer was sustained rightly.
This result makes it unnecessary to consider the other grounds to which the arguments of counsel were addressed.
Order sustaining the demurrer affirmed; judgment for the defendants affirmed.