Court Opinion

ID: 9731396
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:44:29.61381+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:17.644462
License: Public Domain

KELTON, Senior Judge,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent. I do not believe that the Chancellor, the Honorable John C. Dowling, abused his discretion in enjoining the execution of a five-year waste hauling contract with Waste Management which would cost the Townships $504,000 more than the apparent low bid. Nor did he err in directing an immediate rebid of the proposed contract.
As found by the Chancellor, the invitation to bid provided that both townships may “waive technicalities, and accept any bid deemed to be in the best interest of the townships.”
The invitation to bid also provided that all bids must contain a year-end financial statement. Through an apparent copying oversight, one page of York Waste Disposal’s 23 page financial statement was submitted in blank. The missing page was supplied one day after bid opening. In addition, the bid invitation required “a letter from a recycling center certifying *488the center’s capability to accept and market the aforementioned recyclables over the full term of the contract.” The letter as submitted stated as follows:
TO: To Whom It May Concern
FROM: York Waste Disposal, Inc.
DATE: April 17, 1993
SUBJECT: West Hanover/Lower Paxton Township
The above named recycling facility has the capability to accept and market all recyclables from Lower Paxton/West Hanover Township. Our facility is newly constructed (Nov. 1992) and contains the latest in recycling equipment technology.
Since 1988 we have provided recycling collection and marketing of recyclables for aluminum, bimetallic cans, glass, newsprint, cardboard and plastics.
Scott R. Wagner, President
Nancy Halliwell, Notary Public
I believe that our decision in Metropolitan Messenger Service v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 12 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 609, 317 A.2d 346 (1974) is sufficient authority for the Chancellor’s order directing a rebid.
Here, York Waste Disposal was clearly the lower bidder of the two contestants, and the defects, if any, in its submitted bid, were each in reference to matters which affected the determination of whether York Waste was “responsible” within the meaning of the Second Class Township Code, 53 P.S. § 65802.1
Frequently, the determination by a municipality of a bidder’s qualifications to complete a complex contract such as this involves detailed investigations made after bid opening date and may include checking past performance of other contracts, the adequacy of equipment, the bidder’s financial stability, the *489qualifications of subcontractors and many similar items of information not readily apparent on bid opening day. Here, the capability of a recycling center to accept and market all recyclables from the two townships must be finally determined not from a lawyer’s office review of the wording of each bidder’s certification letter, but upon a detailed field investigation by professional advisers competent to make a judgment on such matters.
The precise issue before this Court is not whether the bid should have been awarded to York Waste Disposal. In view of the Chancellor’s order, that issue is moot. Instead, here we are asked to determine whether the Chancellor abused his discretion in ordering the two townships to start all over again, given the relatively minor discrepancies in the bid documents and the wide variation in the amount of the competing bids.
I do not believe that a misfiring copy machine or an ambiguous letter about disposal capacity should necessarily force one to conclude that the bidder failed to meet bid specifications or that it was not responsible.
Because of the significant $504,000 difference between the York Disposal bid and the Waste Management bid, I would affirm the trial court’s order directing rebidding.

. Act of May 17, 1957, P.L. 170 as amended, 53 P.S. § 65802(a):
Each township shall have the power to make, to authorize, and to ratify, expenditures for lawful purposes from funds available therefor, by borrowing within legal limitation: Provided, That all contracts or purchases in excess of ten thousand dollars, except those hereinafter mentioned, shall not be made except with and from the lowest responsible bidder....