Opinion ID: 1845596
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the restrictive paragraph was unauthorized by the enabling statute and is invalid and unenforceable.

Text: Appellants contend that the Mississippi State Highway Commission was not required by statute to include the petroleum adjustment in its contracts and, since the Commission made the decision to do so, the petroleum adjustment could not be limited just to the work done during the contract period. The Commission contends that the determination of how to implement the petroleum adjustment clause was a function within the policy-making powers of the Commission. We recognize that government agencies have only such powers that are expressly granted to them, or necessarily implied in their grant of authority. Any acts which are not so authorized are void. Strong v. Bostick, 420 So.2d 1356 (Miss. 1982); Golding v. Salter, 234 Miss. 567, 107 So.2d 348 (1958). We have not been cited cases by the parties dealing with the petroleum adjustment clause and the Commission's implementation of it. In his opinion, the chancellor said: The Highway Department had written the provision into the fuel adjustment portion or provisions of its contracts without any stated authority in the minutes of the Commission a clause which provided that the fuel adjustment provisions would not be applicable to the period of time falling after the stated completion date of the contract. In the case at bar, as I understand the evidence, the price of fuels continued to go up after the date of the bid letting or the acceptance by the Highway Department, and these that are involved here went into overtime or past the contract due date. The provision in the contract had provided that there would be no price escalation or des-escalation [sic] up or down on the fuels for the period beyond the date specified for the completion of the contract. These claims were for the period of time which did go past completion dates. The testimony was, then, that the clause eliminating the fuel adjustment for the period of time falling past the contract date was eliminated itself from the Highway Department contracts, again without any written minutes authorizing that. Later, the fuel adjustment clause was, to a modified extent, put back in, pegging the price of fuels as of the time that the contract expired or the time for completion of the contract expired, no matter how long it took to complete it thereafter. It is the opinion of the Court that the Highway Department had the right to put the clause which eliminated fuel escalation for the period after the contract completion date into the contracts as being under the permissive authority granted by the Legislature in I believe the '75 Act. The Court is not saying it thinks that was a wise decision. I don't know that it is required to be wise or that everybody agrees that it is. I have not really understood the objection to the Highway Department, that the Highway Department has had, to the fuel escalation clause as anything other than really what amounts to a further penalty, but then I think they had the right to do it. If the fuel escalation clause is not properly drawn, then it ought to be redrawn, the whole fuel escalation, so as to do what was intended, and that was simply to vary the price of the contract to fit the currect [sic] price of fuel. That way, I certainly agree with Mr. Dunn that it was not designed to be a profit or loss of profit in that sense, but it was within the scope of authority, I think, of the Highway Commission to do. It was put into the contracts. The contracts were examined. Pre-letting sessions were held in which no one protested that. All of the contractors knew or should have known what the provisions were. They all accepted that, and as Mr. Dunn pointed out, the price could have gone down as well as up, and if it had gone down, then the Highway Department would in the view of this Court have been required to take that into just as much consideration as they would if the price went up, since it was a contractual part of the contract. Appellants cite Broadhead v. State Tax Commission, 238 Miss. 239, 117 So.2d 881 (1960), for the proposition that the determination of the amount of a penalty cannot be delegated to an administrative agency. However, Broadhead involved the authority of the Tax Commission to levy a penalty ranging from ten percent (10%) to twenty-five percent (25%) for the failure to pay income taxes. The petroleum adjustment restriction is not a penalty and the present case involves contracts not violation of the income tax statute. Broadhead is not authority for the proposition here. Witnesses for appellants, principally contractors, were frank to state that, if they felt they could not complete a job on time, they would not bid on it. We are of the opinion that there is no merit in this assignment.