A California state court judge has issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the City of Los Angeles from evicting a driving range and pro shop operator from the Sepulveda Golf Complex.
Ready Golf Centers, the operator seeking the relief, provides driving range and pro shop services to public golf courses. It won the request for proposal (RFP) for the Sepulveda Golf Complex and was thereafter unanimously approved at each level of the process, starting with the Department of Recreation and Parks (DRP), the Mayor’s office, and finally the Los Angeles City Council in 2009.
But the contract still needed approval from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which was delayed “through no fault of Ready Golf,” wrote the judge. The Corp of Engineers finally approved the contract in August of 2011. All that remained was for the City to sign the contract. Instead, in December of 2011, the City notified Ready Golf that it was terminating the month-to-month interim agreement that was in place.
“The decision was made despite city-sponsored studies by the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Mayor’s office concluding that the city would earn ten times more money over the course of the contract with Ready Golf running the concession then the city could earn itself,” noted Ready Golf’s law firm, Roxborough, Pomerance, Nye & Adreani LLP.
Specifically, Ready Golf argued that “the City has a clear, present and ministerial duty to execute the contract with Ready Golf. Ready Golf won the award, and the contract was then approved … All that remained to be done has been for the City to sign the permanent contract with Ready Golf upon receipt of approval from the Army Corps,” wrote the judge.
The court considered the fact that after the City Council approved the contract, “the parties performed the contract as if approval from the Corp of Engineers was a mere formality.”
One factor that may have shifted the City’s sentiment toward Ready Golf was a controversy that emerged over purported utility fees that Ready Golf owed the City and Ready Golf’s contention that it was being overcharged. In fact, after the Corp of Engineers approved the contract, the City notified Ready Golf that it would only sign the agreement if the outstanding utility bill of $174,000 was paid. “That assertion was contrary (to the 2009 agreement),” wrote the court.
“The problem with the City’s argument is that it did not reject Ready Golf’s bid or proposal; it accepted it. … When a bid is accepted by a public agency, a contract is formed, which is binding on both the bidder and the agency. City of Susanville v. Lee C. Hess Co., (1955) 45 Cal 2d 684 694”
Michael Leslie productions, Inc. v. Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners, et al.; Super. Ct. Cal Co. of LA; BC 477330; 3/15/12
