Ramirez, Leal & Co. v. City Demonstration Agency

The appellant Ramirez, Leal & Co. (Ramirez), a small accounting firm located in the Mission Model Cities area of San Francisco, brought this action to enforce the preference provisions of the Housing and Urban Development Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1701u, and to thus compel the acceptance of its bid to perform the annual audit for the Mission Model Cities’ operating agencies, or for appropriate relief based upon the theory that rejection of its bids was unlawful. This is an appeal from an order of the district court of dismissal and for summary judgment in favor of the appellees. We reverse and remand.

I. The Facts.

Richard E. Koeritz is the Director of Administration of the City Demonstration Agency of San Francisco (see 42 U.S.C. § 3312 (2)) and was the person ultimately responsible for awarding contracts for the San Francisco Mission Model Cities program. In October of 1973, Koeritz invited a number of accounting firms to bid on the job of auditing the books of the various programs involved in and funded by the Mission Model Cities project. John A. Ramirez’s firm, one of the few “Chicano” oriented public accounting firms in the nation, was the only invitee whose business was located in…