Public project owners behaving badly. That could be the subheading for this week’s group of cases. In one situation, the owner provided a copy of the low bid to the second low bidder immediately after bid opening, enabling the second low bidder to get the low bid rejected. The jilted low bidder asked to see the second low bidder’s submittal. The owner stalled.

The owner eventually complied, but only after the low bidder’s petition for injunctive relief had been denied. The low bidder then discovered that the second low bidder had the same problem for which it had complained regarding the low bidder. A California court called this “favoritism most foul.”

In another case, a public project owner responded to a low bid by proposing to “value engineer” the project. The parties negotiated a reduced scope of work at a lower price. The owner continued to hold the bid security. When the bidder declined to proceed with the project as revised, the owner refused to return the bid security, saying it would serve as “liquidated damages.”

The third case this week does not involve bidding, but a claim against a payment bond. A lower-tier supplier was allowed to reach the bond even though it was not in privity of contract with the bond principal.