Hahn Loeser’s Construction Team, led by Rob Remington, Jeff Brauer and Christina Hassel, obtained a resounding victory on behalf of its client, Mark Schaffer Excavating (MSE) in a bid dispute with the City of Lorain. Sherry Rollo, Sarah Lewis and Nevenka Whitworth also assisted with the case.
The City of Lorain engaged contractors to bid on a massive ecological restoration project involving the removal or burial of slag that sits between steel mills and the Black River in Lorain. MSE entered into a bid dispute with the City, arguing that it abused its discretion and arbitrarily rejected MSE’s low bid in favor of one of its competitors.
On May 9, 2019, our team successfully convinced the court that there was a substantial likelihood that MSE would meet its burden of showing, by clear and convincing evidence, that the City inappropriately rejected MSE’s bid. In addition, the team was able to convey to the Court that MSE would suffer irreparable harm and that the public interest would be served by the injunction against the City.
MSE assumed significant risk in entering into this bid dispute. Hahn Loeser had to contend not only with the defense mounted by the City, but the added defense of MSE’s competitor, who intervened in the lawsuit a week before trial. This case was unique because our team also sought a claim against the City for violation of the Ohio Uniform Trade Secret Act for the wrongful release of MSE’s unit pricing in a public records request. Despite these difficulties, the team’s exceptional work in the courtroom resulted in the Judge issuing a permanent mandatory injunction ordering the City to award the earth-moving project to MSE, securing the future of their business operations.
Read more about the impact of this ruling on Mark Schaffer Excavating in this article in The Morning Journal.
Richard Payerchin — The Morning Journal