The San Francisco call., 1904-08-25
ASYLUM BUTTER
CONTRACT VOID
Judge Seawell EnjOinS Man.
ayers of Napa Hospital
From FavOring a Bidder

The action of the board of managers
of the Napa Insane Asylum in award
ing the contract for the supplying of
butter for the institution to Wheaton,
Pond & Harold, when at least seven
bidders had offered to furnish the stuff
at a lower figure, is criticized by Su-
perior Judge Seawell.
In passing upon the suit of the A.
L. Lundy Company for an injunction,
which he has had under submission for
several days, Judge Seawell finds that
the asylum managers exceeded their
authority and he orders that they be
restrained from letting the contract
until they have investigated the re
sponsibility of other and lower bidders.
The Lundy Company had formerly fur
nished butter and eggs TO the asylum
and was among the lower bidders
whose bids were rejected. In the evil
dence taken in the trial of the case
the asylum managers stated that Lun-
dy's butter was rancid and his eggs
bad.
The substance of Judge Seawelrs
written opinion is as follows:
It is we'll settled that in determining the re-
sponsibility OF bidders the board is not limited
to pecuniary responsibility, but II is its duty
aiso TO consider their Integrity, skill and expe-
rienoe. and facilities for carrying out the pro-
posed contract
The discretion which the board is empowered
Is what is known as a sound legal discretion,
which excludes arbitrary OF caprcious action.
The courts have no power TO control such DIS
cretion nor compel the board to award a con-
tract to a particular bidder, but they have the
power to restrain the abuse of that discretion.
In this there were seven bidders upon
the butter contract, at prices materially lower
than the bids CT the parties to whom the con-
tract was awarded. Concedng that the board
had mower to reject the bids of those whose
performance Of previous contracts had been un-
satisfactory there were at least four OF the
seven bidders to whom the board had no
knowledge or information, and to whose
qualifications no inquiry or investigation was
made.
The position taken by the managers was that
the successful bidders had performed a con-
tract satisfactorily the previous year and 1t
was wiser to make the award TO them even az
higher prices. The courts opinion Is that such
a pasitlon has support in the statutes II
ignorance OF the qualifications of other bid
ders as to whom no invest CATION Is made.
/ can Justify award TO the highest bidder
| tlnue to get them indefinitely without fear CT
| competition. and the mandatory requirements
| of the statutes are practically nullihed.
! The opinion declares that it is the
! duty of the board to make the inves-
( tigation and one method is to call upon
| the bidders themselves to furnish sat
| isfactory evidence of their ability to
| fulfill the contract. In awarding the
| contract without investigating, while
| considered for the best interest of the
hospital, the board had mistaken
| view of it's duty. Under its power TO
reject any and all bids the board could
not arbitrarily reject any bid without
| inquiry or investigation as to the re-
sponsibility of the bidders.
Judgment Is ordered restraining the
defendants from entering into a con-
tract with Wheaton, Pond & Harold
| for supplying butter to the Napa State
Hospital unless, after proper investi-
! CATION, the board shall determine they
are the lowest responsible bidders.