Tremont Public Advisors, LLC v. Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority

Citations

• 333 Conn. 672

Syllabus

The plaintiff public affairs firm sought to recover damages from the defen- dant, a quasi-public agency responsible for providing solid waste dis- posal and recycling services to numerous Connecticut municipalities, alleging that it had engaged in certain anticompetitive practices by con- ducting a sham public bidding process in connection with its award of a contract for municipal government liaison services in violation of the Connecticut Antitrust Act (§ 35-24 et seq.). The defendant had issued a request for proposals for a multiyear liaison services contract. The plaintiff and B Co., a law firm that had provided the defendant with liaison services since 2006, were the only bidders for the contract, and, even though the plaintiff's bid complied with the request for proposals and B Co.'s did not, the defendant ultimately awarded the contract to B Co. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant had evaluated the bids in a biased manner to ensure that B Co. was awarded the contract, in violation of its own procurement policies and the competitive bidding statute (§ 22a-268) requiring the defendant to engage in open and com- petitive bidding for contracts with outside vendors. The plaintiff further alleged that the defendant awarded the contract to B Co. because B Co. carried out lobbying services on behalf of the defendant in violation of 333 Conn. 672 NOVEMBER, 2019 673 Tremont Public Advisors, LLC v. Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority the statute (§ 1-101bb) prohibiting quasi-public agencies such as the defendant from retaining lobbyists. In addition, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant's conspiracy with B Co. had reduced the number of competitors for the liaison services contract, had increased the price paid by the defendant for liaison services, resulting in higher costs for those municipalities that dealt with the defendant, and had adversely affected the quality of the defendant's services. The defendant moved to dismiss the plaintiff's operative comp