Associated Gen. Contractors v. Calcasieu Parish School Board

572 So. 2d 623, 1990 WL 202662
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 8, 1991
Docket89-621
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 572 So. 2d 623 (Associated Gen. Contractors v. Calcasieu Parish School Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Associated Gen. Contractors v. Calcasieu Parish School Board, 572 So. 2d 623, 1990 WL 202662 (La. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

572 So.2d 623 (1990)

LOUISIANA ASSOCIATED GENERAL CONTRACTORS, INC., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
The CALCASIEU PARISH SCHOOL BOARD, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 89-621.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

December 12, 1990.
Writs Granted March 8, 1991.

*624 Jones, Tete, Nolen, Hanchey, Swift & Spears, Edward J. Fonti, Lake Charles, Wray, Robinson, & Kracht, W.P. Wray, Jr., Baton Rouge, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Lester A. Robertson, Lake Charles, for defendant-appellee.

Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, Murphy J. Foster III, Baton Rouge, for amicus curiae.

Gardner, Robein & Urann, Louis L. Robein, Jr., Metairie, La., for intervenor-appellee.

Before STOKER, LABORDE and YELVERTON, JJ.

LABORDE, Judge.

This is a suit for a preliminary and permanent injunction filed by Louisiana Associated General Contractors, Inc., Asphalt Associates, Inc., Bayou Contracting, Inc. of Texas, Bessette Development Corp., Cavys, Inc., Challenge Construction Corp., Collette Construction Co., Inc., R.E. Heidt Construction Co., Inc., Hyatt Construction Co., Inc., LRM Co. Inc., F. Miller & Sons, Inc., John D. Myers & Associates, Inc., The Port City Group, Inc., Priola Construction Corp. and Ribbeck Construction Corp. (Plaintiffs) against defendant, Calcasieu Parish School Board (School Board), to enjoin the School *625 Board from receiving and opening bids or from awarding any public works contracts which contain a requirement that minimum or prevailing wage rates be paid workers employed on the projects. Plaintiffs also sought a declaratory judgment finding and determining that the School Board has no authority to adopt and incorporate a minimum or prevailing wage rate in its public work contracts, that the minimum or prevailing wage provision violated Louisiana's Public Bid Law (LSA-R.S. 38:2211 et seq.), and that any contract awarded or to be awarded pursuant thereto is null and void. The Southwest Building Trades Council, AFL-CIO, intervened in this action for the stated purpose of "uniting with defendant, Calcasieu Parish School Board in resisting plaintiffs' demands." On May 24, 1989, the trial court denied plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction. Subsequently, on June 2, 1989, the trial court denied plaintiffs' request for a permanent injunction and declaratory relief and dismissed this petition at their cost. Plaintiffs now appeal devolutively from the judgment of the trial court. We reverse and remand.

FACTS

This case was tried on stipulated facts. Louisiana Associated General Contractors, Inc. is a statewide association of contractors and bidders which receives dues from each of its members as each member receives, performs and is paid for the performance of its work on public works projects. The 14 individual plaintiffs in this suit are all members of the Louisiana Association of General Contractors, Inc. The association and the 14 individual members involved in the suit are all tax paying citizens of the State of Louisiana and of Calcasieu Parish.

By this suit, plaintiffs seek to enjoin the School Board from requiring payment of minimum or prevailing wage rates in its public works contracts. The School Board has adopted and undertaken a program of public works which entails the construction of new facilities as well as renovation of several older buildings. The funds to be used to pay for the projects are solely derived from Calcasieu Parish tax revenues; no federal or state funds are involved in any of the projects. The School Board has determined that the specifications for these projects shall contain the requirement that all contractors and subcontractors must pay all workmen, mechanics and laborers wage rates equal to and not less than those set out in Prevailing Wage Rate Determination No. 14950, issued on May 15, 1988, by the Louisiana Department of Labor. One of the School Board's public works projects is the construction of a new middle school in DeQuincy, Louisiana. The construction contract on this project was signed on September 13, 1988. The contract documents, pursuant to a resolution adopted by the School Board, contained the following provisions:

"SECTION 1. Specifications for the contract for construction of the new DeQuincy Middle School, School District 21, shall contain the requirement that the contractor and/or his sub-contractor(s) shall pay, at the time and at the place established by existing law or custom all workmen, mechanics and laborers who have performed work under the contract, and without subsequent deduction or rebate on any account, the full amount accrued at time of payment, less any authorized deductions for wage assignments, garnishments, taxes, insurance premiums or other similar lawful deductions computed at wage rates not less than those stated in Prevailing Wage Rate Determination No. 14950, issued May 15, 1988 by the Louisiana Department of Labor. A copy of Prevailing Wage Rate Determination No. 14950 shall be included in the specifications for this project.
SECTION 2. Specifications for the contract for construction of the new DeQuincy Middle School shall also contain a stipulation that prior to the payment of the retainage, the contractor and his subcontractors shall be required to execute an affidavit attesting that to the best of their knowledge, information and belief, the workmen, laborers and mechanics have been paid wage rates not less than those stated in Prevailing Wage Rate *626 Determination No. 14950, issued May 15, 1988 by the Louisiana Department of Labor.
SECTION 3. The minimum scale of wages to be paid shall be posted by the contractor in a prominent and easily accessible place at the site of the work.
SECTION 4. Every contract subject to the provisions of this Resolution shall contain the stipulation that there may be withheld from the contractor so much of accrued payments as may be necessary to pay to workmen, laborers and mechanics employed by the contractor or any subcontractor on the work the difference between the rates of wages required by the contract to be paid to such laborers, workmen and mechanics and the rates of wages received by such workmen, laborers and mechanics.
SECTION 5. Every contract within the scope of this Resolution shall contain the further provision that in the event it is found by the School Board that any laborer or mechanic employed by the contractor or any subcontractor directly on the site of the work covered by the contract has been or is being paid a rate of wages less than the rate of wages required by the contract, the contractor does agree, as part of the consideration for the awarding of the contract, to pay to the School Board a sum equal to three (3) times the amount which the said workmen, laborer or mechanic has been underpaid, as liquidated damages for such breach of contract...."

The School Board stipulated that it would apply the prevailing wage rate requirement, as found in the resolution for the DeQuincy Middle School project, to all bids let in the future for School District No. 22 public works projects.

ISSUES PRESENTED

Plaintiffs have raised the following issues for our consideration:

(1) Whether the School Board's requirement that the contracts for its public works projects contain a prevailing wage provision violates Louisiana's Public Bid Law (LSA-R.S. 38:2211 et seq.)?

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572 So. 2d 623, 1990 WL 202662, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/associated-gen-contractors-v-calcasieu-parish-school-board-lactapp-1991.