Viajes Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Martinez-Monge

711 F. Supp. 674, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5776, 1989 WL 55178
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedMay 25, 1989
DocketNo. CIVIL 89-0027CC
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 711 F. Supp. 674 (Viajes Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Martinez-Monge) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Viajes Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Martinez-Monge, 711 F. Supp. 674, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5776, 1989 WL 55178 (prd 1989).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

CEREZO, District Judge.

The case at bar in an action under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, in which plaintiff Viajes Puerto Rico, Inc., alleged the violation of its rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. We now consider a Motion to Dismiss filed on March 3, 1989 (docket entry 7) by defendants, various Commonwealth of Puerto Rico officials, pursuant to Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which was opposed by plaintiff on March 17, 1989 (docket entry 8).

The facts of this case, as averred in the complaint, are as follows: Viajes Puerto Rico, Inc., a corporation organized under the laws of Puerto Rico and dedicated to the travel business, is a bona fide bidder for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, registered as such with the General Services Administration (GSA) of the Commonwealth. On August 3, 1988, defendant Angel Toledo-Ortiz, Deputy Administrator of the GSA, issued invitation to bid No. VM-9-008. Its purpose was to contract with travel agencies the implementation of the student tours established by Law Number 32 of June 23, 1985, scheduled for the summer of 1989.

Plaintiff challenged this invitation to bid charging deficiencies, and, as a result, the bid was canceled. After a meeting with prospective bidders on September 1988, in which bidders were required to submit comments or recommendations to the invitation to bid, a Second Bid Amendment was issued by the GSA on October 7, 1988. It set the date of October 20, 1988 for the opening of bids.

On October 20, 1988, the date scheduled for the opening of bids, GSA issued a Third Bid Amendment which was received by plaintiff on October 26, 1988, the day before the scheduled bid openings. Precisely on October 26, GSA issued a Fourth Bid Amendment. Nevertheless, the bids were opened the following day, as scheduled. Only plaintiff and Marcie Travel, another travel agency registered as bidder with the GSA, submitted bids. On November 23, 1988, the Board of Bids of the GSA rejected plaintiffs offer because a mortgage note submitted as a bid bond was not registered at the Property Register of the Commonwealth, as required by law.

On December 2, 1988, plaintiff filed a petition with the Review Board of the GSA challenging the award of the bid to Marcie Travel. It was denied by the Board ten days later on the basis that the time established by its regulations to review bid adjudications had already elapsed.

On January 11, 1989, plaintiff filed this complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against defendants Franklin Martinez-Monge, Administrator of the GSA; Toledo; Norma Pérez-Girard, Interim Executive Director of the Governor’s Office for Youth Affairs; Rafaela Flores, Héctor Figueroa, Rubén Rosa-Toro and Carmen Vázquez, members of the Board of Bids of the GSA; and Rafael Acosta-Rivera, Federico Rentas Romero and Antonio Ortiz-Roque, members of the Review Board of the GSA. Plaintiff claims that defendants, in issuing numerous amendments to the invitation to [676]*676bid, in failing to cancel the invitation to bid when no bidder complied with the conditions established, in not awarding the plaintiff the item of the invitation to bids in which he was the lowest bidder, and in not reviewing the adjudication of the bid as requested before the Review Board, deprived it of its rights to due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment and under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff requested a preliminary injunction canceling the execution of any contract to be issued under the bid, or, the implementation of the contract if it has been executed, a permanent injunction enjoining defendants from violating plaintiffs rights, and monetary damages.

Defendants contend that the Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain this suit because it is an action against the Commonwealth which is barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Defendants cite extensively from the Supreme Court’s decision in Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Haldeman, 465 U.S. 89, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984), and basically allege that the holding of that case — that a claim that state officials violated state law in carrying out their official responsibilities is a claim against the state that is protected by the Eleventh Amendment — is controlling over the case at bar. We disagree.

It is settled law that the Eleventh Amendment prohibits suits against a State by citizens of another State, as well as suits against a State by its own citizens. See Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 10 S.Ct. 504, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890).1 The Eleventh Amendment also bars a suit against state officials when “the state is the real, substantial party in interest.” Ford Motor Co. v. Department of Treasury, 323 U.S. 459, 464, 65 S.Ct. 347, 350, 89 L.Ed. 389 (1945). A suit against state officials that is in fact a suit against a State is barred, regardless of whether it seeks damages or injunctive relief. Pennhurst, supra, 465 U.S. at p. 102, 104 S.Ct. at 909.

The Supreme Court, however, has recognized an important exception to this general rule, by holding in Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908), that a suit to enjoin as unconstitutional a state official’s action was not barred by the Eleventh Amendment. The Young decision was qualified by the Court in Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974), when it stated that “when a plaintiff sues a state official alleging a violation of federal law, the federal court may award an injunction that governs the official’s future conduct, but not one that awards retroactive monetary relief.” See Pennhurst, supra, 465 U.S. at pp. 102-3, 104 S.Ct. at 909-10. The rational behind the Young doctrine was the need to permit the federal courts to vindicate federal rights and hold state officials responsible to the supreme authority of the United States. Young, supra, 209 U.S. at p. 160, 28 S.Ct. at 454; Pennhurst, supra, 465 U.S. at p. 105, 104 S.Ct. at 910.

Applying these principles to the present case, we must reject defendants’ contention that this suit is barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Although it is evidently an action against Commonwealth officials, which is ordinarily barred by the Amendment, plaintiff expressly argued that defendants acted unconstitutionally under both a federal law, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the Constitution (the Fourteenth Amendment), which places this suit under the exception permitted by Ex Parte Young, supra. It is precisely this fact that renders inapplicable the holding of Pennhurst, supra,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
711 F. Supp. 674, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5776, 1989 WL 55178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/viajes-puerto-rico-inc-v-martinez-monge-prd-1989.