California Court of Appeal

In this case, defendant outbid plaintiffs on 23 public works contracts to apply a slurry seal protective coating to various roadways throughout southern California. Plaintiffs jointly sued defendant for intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and other torts, alleging that defendant had only been able to submit the lowest bid by paying its workers less than the statutorily required prevailing wage. Each of the plaintiffs had been the second lowest bidder on the contracts they were outbid on. Judgment plaintiffs' complaint is reversed, where: 1) the second-place bidder on a public works contract properly states a cause of action for intentional interference with prospective economic advantage against the winning bidder if the winner was only able to obtain lowest bidder status by illegally paying its workers less than the prevailing wage; and 2) the fact that plaintiffs were second-lowest bidders gave rise to a relationship with the public agency that made the award of the contract reasonably probable.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/20/2015
• Published 02/20/2015

Judges

• Rubin

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel