City Council of Beverly Hills v. Superior Court

Real parties in interest (Harman) filed a petition for writ of mandate and for injunction in the superior court seeking to overturn the award of a public contract for the “rehabilitation” of the Coldwater reservoir of the City of Beverly Hills to Rex W. Murphy, Inc. (Murphy) after Murphy had undertaken work upon the contract. The petition alleges that the city prepared a solicitation to bid and specifications of the work to be performed. The contract bid documents contained the following language: “A bidder must be licensed in accordance with the provisions of Section 7000 through 7145, inclusive, of the Business and Professions Code. . . . Before submitting bids, contractors shall be licensed in accordance with the provisions of Section 7000 through 7145, inclusive, of the Business and Professions Code. ...” The petition states also that Harman was the low bidder and Murphy the second lowest bidder and that on January 21, 1969, the respondent City Council of Beverly Hills adopted an ordinance in the form attached as an exhibit to the petition. The ordinance recites that while Harman was the low bidder, the water manager-chief engineer of the city had advised the council that a…