Case Name: Geo. W. Beard and Davis Coon v. Garret DeGoit, clerk of Burdell township, Osceola County
Court: Michigan Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1885-10-27
Citations: 58 Mich. 245
Docket Number: 
Parties: Geo. W. Beard and Davis Coon v. Garret DeGoit, clerk of Burdell township, Osceola County.
Judges: 
Reporter: Michigan Reports
Volume: 58
Pages: 245–246

Head Matter:
Geo. W. Beard and Davis Coon v. Garret DeGoit, clerk of Burdell township, Osceola County.
Highway Commissioners — Letting contract.
Highway commissioners have no authority to contract with persons who have not themselves bid for woik that under the statutes can only be let on sealed proposals.
Motion for order to show cause.
Submitted and denied October 27.
The highway commissioner of Burdell township gave notice that he would receive sealed proposals for the building of a bridge, and several bids were sent in ranging from $387 to $1000. The lowest bidder was not present when the bids were opened, and the commissioner, in announcing that he should award the job to him, added that if he did not give the necessary security he should accept the next higher bid. The lowest bidder, whose name was Elza Coon, refused to give security, and the next higher bidder agreed with rela tors that if tlio commissioner approved they might take the job off his hands. The commissioner consented and contracted with relators, who gave satisfactory bond and did the work under the eye of different members of the township board, who frequently visited the place where it was going on and made no objections. When the bridge was finished, the commissioner accepted it and drew an order on the township treasurer in payment, but the clerk, although he reported the amount of the contract price to the supervisor as money to be raised by tax, and the board of supervisors authorized the amount to be spread on the tax-roll, refused to countersign the commissioner’s order on the ground that the contract was void in not being executed by a regular bidder. Helators seek to compel the clerk by mandamus to countersign the order.
C. M. Beardsley and II. A. Chaney for relators relied on IIow. Stat. §§ 1379, 13S0, 1114, 1115.

Opinion:
The Court
refused the order asked for. The highway commissioner has no authority to let jobs for which the statutes require sealed proposals, to persons who did not make such proposals, and at a time subsequent to the opening of the bids. Hannah v. Fife 27 Mich. 172; Mackenzie v. Baraga Township 39 Mich. 554.