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Alter and Associates7/5/2005
In the absence of statutory authority to the contrary, the doctrine of sovereign immunity protects the state from civil liability for monetary damages unless a claimant has obtained permission to sue from the claims commissioner. In this case, a disappointed government contractor seeks to compel the state commissioner to perform contractual obligations arising out of a bid award that, according to the contractor, was wrongfully terminated. To sidestep the defense of sovereign immunity, the contractor's remedial claims seek equitable rather than monetary relief. The trial court nonetheless concluded that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction and dismissed the contractor's complaint. We agree with the court and affirm the judgment of dismissal.
The plaintiff, Alter and Associates, LLC, filed a complaint seeking an injunction or a writ of mandamus to compel the defendants, commissioner of correction Theresa C. Lantz and the department of correction, to go forward with the plaintiff's proposal to provide staff training on sexual harassment issues. It alleged that the parties had entered into a binding contract when the defendants notified the plaintiff that it had been chosen to provide such services. It further alleged that, having entered into this contract, the defendants wrongfully rescinded it in reliance on information that another state agency had found the plaintiff's performance of a similar services contract to have been unsatisfactory. Because the plaintiff was not afforded the opportunity to challenge the accuracy of this information, the plaintiff claimed that the defendants' disavowal of the bid award violated the state bidding and purchasing statutes, General Statutes ยง 4a-50 et seq. The plaintiff further claimed that monetary damages would not provide an adequate remedy for these statutory violations and that equitable relief was warranted.
The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the plain-tiff's complaint. They argued that the allegations contained therein did not support a claim for equitable relief and that the doctrine of sovereign immunity precluded the plaintiff from receiving a damages award.
The trial court granted the motion to dismiss. Although it recognized that some attacks on a governmental bidding process might warrant relief other than damages, it held that such attacks required allegations of fraud, corruption or similar taints on the bidding process. Because the plaintiff's complaint contained no such allegations but relied instead on allegations of improper reliance on mistaken information, the court held that the plaintiff's complaint did not differ, in principle, from other controversies about the validity and the enforceability of a contract. Accordingly, the court held that the only remedy to which the plaintiff might be entitled was an award of monetary damages, which had to be presented to the claims commissioner.
In its appeal to this court, the plaintiff argues that the judgment of dismissal should be set aside. In its view, the trial court improperly denied the plaintiff the equitable relief that it sought because the court (1) should have undertaken an equitable inquiry broader than a consideration of fraud or corruption of the bidding process and (2) should have enforced the defendants' ministerial duty to comply with state competitive bidding statutes. We are not persuaded.
"The standard of review of a motion to dismiss is . . . well established. In ruling upon whether a complaint survives a motion to dismiss, a court must take the facts to be those alleged in the complaint, including those facts necessarily implied from the allegations, construing them in a manner most favorable to the pleader. . . . A
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