Demien Construction Co. v. O'Fallon Fire Protection Dist., No. 14-3857 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDemien, the unsuccessful bidder for the construction of a new firehouse, filed suit against the District under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that the District violated federal and state constitutional rights, as well as state law, in the bidding process. The district court dismissed the complaint. The court concluded that it need only determine whether Damien has Article III standing under Federal law and not whether Damien has standing under Missouri law. Determining that Demien has Article III standing, the court concluded that Demien has abandoned its claims under the First Amendment by failing to argue them before the district court, and that Demien failed to allege that the District deprived Demien of any entitlement, and so it failed to state a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. The court concluded that, under Missouri law, there is no property right to the lowest bidder, and standing to bring a state court claim of deprivation of property rights does not establish a protected property interest. In this case, the District stated that it may accept the lowest bid, but does not need to. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Riley, Author, with Bye and Benton, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. In action by the unsuccessful bidder on the fire district's building project, the plaintiff had standing, but failed to state a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment for deprivation of a protected interest without due process of law as under Missouri law the unsuccessful bidder on a construction project has no property interest in the contract where the public body reserves the rights, as the fire district did, to reject any and all bids or to award the contract to a bidder other than the lowest.
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