Opinion ID: 1154635
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Interpretation of LSA-R.S. 38:2214

Text: The City argues that, since the permissive may, not the mandatory shall, is used in LSA-R.S. 38:2214(B), the statute does not require just cause for rejection of contracts in all instances. Instead, the City contends that just cause is merely one reason for which a public entity may reject bids if it wishes to do so. Rosenbush and the Contractors maintain that this ignores the legislative history of the statute and fails to give proper effect to the amendments. We agree with the latter argument. There is no ambiguity in the statute. When a law is clear and unambiguous and its application does not lead to absurd consequences, the law shall be applied as written without further interpretation in search of the intent of the legislature. LSA-C.C. Art. 9; In re C.B., Applying for Adoption, 94-0755 (La. 10/17/94), 643 So.2d 1251; Moore v. Gencorp, Inc., 93-0814 (La. 3/22/94), 633 So.2d 1268. The legislature is presumed to have enacted a statute in light of the preceding statutes involving the same subject matter and court decisions construing those statutes, and where the new statute is worded differently from the preceding statute, the legislature is presumed to have intended to change the law. Louisiana Civil Service League v. Forbes, 258 La. 390, 246 So.2d 800, 809 (1971), overruled on other grounds, Barnett v. Develle, 289 So.2d 129 (La.1974); Helmerich & Payne, Incorporated v. Stephens, 569 So.2d 21, 23 (La.App. 4th Cir.1990). During the course of several legislative sessions, the legislature amended LSA-R.S. 38:2214 to require that the awarding authority have first cause and then just cause to reject any and all bids. In its most recent amendment, the legislature even illustrated the sort of circumstances which would constitute just cause. Clearly, the legislature intended to change the total discretion previously given to awarding authorities which allowed them to reject any and all bids without any explanation. Several of the Fourth and Fifth Circuit cases cited by the City even acknowledge that a change was made by the amendments. See HTW Transportation Company, 527 So.2d at 342; Starlight Homes, 632 So.2d at 4. The Public Bid Law was enacted to advance the interests of the tax paying citizens, and its purpose is to prevent public officials from awarding contracts on the basis of favoritism or at possibly exorbitant and extortionate prices. Haughton Elevator Division v. State of Louisiana through Division of Administration, 367 So.2d 1161 (La. 1979); Airline Construction Company, Inc. v. Ascension Parish School Board, 568 So.2d 1029 (La.1990). Requiring public entities to articulate reasons for rejecting any and all contracts is in keeping with this purpose. Additionally, we note that the City's permissive/mandatory language argument would give the statute a strained construction. Had the legislature used shall instead of may in LSA-R.S. 38:2214(B), this would have effectively required that the public entity reject any and all bids whenever just cause was found, even if the authority had no desire to do so or the rejection would run counter to the best interests of the public entity. The proper interpretation of the statute is that the public entity must have just cause to reject any bid and, likewise, it must have just cause to reject all bids. This requires that the public entity have a just, reasonable basis for rejecting a bid, yet it does not dictate that it must reject bids on every occasion where such a reason is found to exist. Having found that the legislature intentionally changed the statute to require just cause for the rejection of bids, we now consider Rosenbush's contention that the underlying premise of the City's position is faulty due to its ultimate reliance upon the Talley case. This case was construed in the HTW Transportation case as allowing a public entity seeking bids to subvert the amendments to LSA-R.S. 38:2214(B) simply by placing a reservation in the bid proposal that it may reject any and all bids. However, the recitation of facts does not show that there was any such reservation in the Talley bid proposal. Nor was one necessary at that time because the Public Bid Law still gave the awarding authority unfettered discretion to reject any and all bids without any cause at all. We agree with Rosenbush's argument that Talley, supra, is not authority for completely ignoring and frustrating the clear intent of the legislature in amending LSA-R.S. 38:2214(B) by merely inserting such a reservation in the bid proposal. Based on the foregoing, we find that the court of appeal erred in finding that the City could circumvent the requirement of just cause under LSA-R.S. 38:2214(B) by merely reserving the right to reject any and all bids in the bid proposal. We disapprove of any interpretation of Talley, supra, and HTW Transportation, supra, to that effect.