A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge has granted a writ of mandate for Ready Golf Centers against the City of Los Angeles, compelling the Board of Commissioners of the Department of Recreation and Parks to sign a permanent 15-year contract for Ready Golf to operate the driving range and pro shop at the Sepulveda Golf Complex.
Ready Golf operated the Sepulveda Golf Complex for a number of years on an interim contract, and then in a completely open, transparent, and unbiased process, won the request for proposal issued by the City in 2007. Ready Golf was thereafter approved by the Mayor, and a unanimous Los Angeles City Council in December 2009. After City Council approval, the City continued to perform under the contract, in fact even renewing it for another five years. However, the Department never signed the contract. Thereafter, in December 2011, the Department attempted to evict Ready Golf, arguing that it had never signed the permanent contract, and instead was operating under an interim, month- to-month contract.
Ready Golf immediately sued and obtained a preliminary injunction, precluding the Department from evicting Ready Golf.
“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,” the court wrote in granting the injunction, citing City of Susanville v. Lee C. Hess Co., (1955) 45 Cal 2d 684 694.
In that same opinion (summarized in Sports Litigation Alert Volume 9, Issue 8), the judge urged the City to sign the permanent contract.
Instead, the Department persisted in fighting, prompting the court in the instant opinion to write that “the Board’s President and Secretary have a mandatory, ministerial duty to execute the revised Concession agreement with Ready Golf, which is enforceable by mandamus. The Petition for Writ of Mandate is granted.”
Counsel for Ready Golf, Drew E. Pomerance, was very pleased with the victory, stating: “The Court ruled in favor of Ready Golf on each and every issue, and recognized clearly that once all required approvals were obtained by the Mayor and City Council, that the Board was required to sign the contract. It is shameful that the Department has refused to sign the contract, and during this time of severe budget constraints, it is inexcusable that rogue members of Recreation and Parks have caused our City to waste precious taxpayer dollars by trying to evict Ready Golf and needlessly engaging in this litigation.”
Ready Golf was represented by Roxborough, Pomerance, Nye & Adreani, LLP, a Los Angeles-based law firm.
