Tendering: A Contractor’s Rights and Obligations with Respect to Subcontractor Bids

The general contractor bid contains an amalgamation of its own estimating and pricing with that submitted by its subcontractors. The Courts have struggled with the issue of determining when the submission and acceptance of a contractor bid requires the contractor to enter into a subcontract with a particular subcontractor. No subcontractor wants to submit a bid which is carried by the general contractor to achieve acceptance, only to have some new party show up to undercut its price and obtain the subcontract. The Courts have basically considered the issue as one of determining when the tender terms and circumstances require the contractor to enter into a bid with a low bidding subcontractor or alternatively, the subcontractor carried in the general contractor’s bid.