Court: SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS
Citation: 356 Mass. 114
Parties: LINCOLN-SUDBURY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT vs. BRANDT-JORDAN CORP. OF NEW BEDFORD & another.
County: Middlesex
Hearing Date: April 7, 1969
Decision Date: June 3, 1969
Judges: WILKINS, C.J., SPALDING, CUTTER, KIRK, & SPIEGEL, JJ.
An error by a selected sub-bidder on a public construction project which constitutes a “clerical or mechanical error” within the meaning of that term in G. L. c. 149, Section 44B (3), as amended through St. 1961, c. 604, Section 2, is limited to an error of copying, transference or transcription, including mistakes of arithmetical computation, which occur during the final stages of bid preparation. [118] A selected sub-bidder on a public construction project who had submitted his sub-bid without allowing for work required to be performed as shown on a drawing included in the plans for the project simply because he forgot to take such work into account did not make a “clerical or mechanical error” within the meaning of that term in G. L. c. 149, Section 44B (3), as amended through St. 1961, c. 604, Section 2, nor was the mistake made by the sub-bidder one of the “unforeseen circumstances” intended by that term in Section 44B, and he was not entitled to a return of his bid deposit. [118] Upon the failure of the lowest and selected sub-bidder on a public construction contract to perform his agreement to execute a subcontract with the successful general contractor, the amount of damages under the delinquent sub-bidder’s bid bond to which the awarding authority was entitled under G. L. c. 149, Section 44B (3), as amended through St.