Utah Plumbing and Heating Contractors Association v. Board of Education of Weber County School District
Utah Supreme Court
429 P.2d 49 (1967)
- Written by Emily Laird, JD
Facts
An organization of plumbing contractors and three other trade associations (the contractors) (plaintiffs) sued a county board of education (defendant) in state trial court seeking to enjoin the board of education from using a school’s own maintenance staff as labor for a large-scale sprinkler-installation project. Utah statutes stated that school building projects should be awarded after a process of competitive bidding. Utah statutes also enumerated that a board of education’s powers included the power to construct and erect school buildings and take care of the maintenance and prosperity of the school. As required by state statute, the school board properly requested bids for pipes and materials for the large-scale sprinkler-installation project. The board awarded the project to the lowest bidder, following the state statute. The contractors contended that under state statute, the sprinkler-installation labor should also have been a project granted to the winning bid in a competitive-bidding process. The board of education argued that using its own maintenance employees to perform some construction labor was within its statutorily granted power and was a prudent way to save money and employ the efforts of underutilized maintenance-staff members. The contractors asked the trial court for an injunction barring the board of education from allowing school maintenance staff to perform the labor on the sprinkler installation. The trial court found in favor of the board of education and dismissed the contractors’ claims. The contractors appealed to the state supreme court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Crockett, C.J.)
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