Walt Rankin & Associates, Inc. v. City of Murrieta

In an action by a subcontractor for negligent breach of a mandatory duty against the City of Murrieta (City), the trial court entered judgment for the City. The subcontractor appeals, contending the trial court erred in finding the City did not have a mandatory duty to require the surety providing a payment bond under Civil Code sections 3247 and 3248 to be an admitted surety insurer or to confirm the sufficiency of the surety prior to accepting the bond.

The resolution of this appeal requires us to determine several issues of first impression, including: (1) must the statutory scheme under sections 3247 and 3248, requiring a payment bond as a condition of being awarded a contract by a public entity, be construed with reference to the Bond and Undertaking Law, Code of Civil Procedure section 995.010 et seq; and (2) if so, do those sections construed together impose a mandatory duty under Government Code section 815.6 on a government entity awarding a public contract to take certain measures to ensure the payment bond surety is a sufficient admitted surety insurer under Code of Civil Procedure 995.310. We answer these questions in the affirmative and reverse the judgment…