Awarded Contract Can Be Executed Despite Ongoing Bid Protest In Medtrust, LLC v. Bid Board of the Municipality of San Juan, the bid board awarded

Awarded Contract Can Be Executed Despite Ongoing Bid Protest In Medtrust, LLC v. Bid Board of the Municipality of San Juan, the bid board awarded

contract to NTSPR, LLC for the supply of air

purification units. Medtrust, LLC sought to overturn the award arguing, in summary, that:

1. the contract should not have been executed before the time to review the award expired;
2. the contract should have been awarded to Medtrust, as the lowest bidder, and
3. the bid board should not have held ex parte communications with

NTSPR. The court affirmed the award. The first argument was unsuccessful because, under Rule 61(A)(1) of the intermediate appeals court’s regulation, the mere filing of a petition for judicial review does not stay a bid award.

Although the rule allows the court to grant such relief, in this case the court declined to do so. Since no stay was granted, the bid board was free to execute the contract.

As to the second argument, the court concluded that the bid board’s decision was reasonable. In the notice of award, the bid board explained that, although Medtrust’s bid seemed at first blush to be the lowest bid, a closer look revealed that this was not the case. This was so because Medtrust’s bid was conditioned on several factors that were outside of the control of the municipality, including freight costs, inflation, and order volumes.

Moreover, according to the bid board, Medtrust’s bid did not comply with the bid requirements.

Finally, the third argument also failed because the court did not find any evidence that the ex parte communications had any effect in the award decision.