The Price of a Clerical Error
A contractor’s slip of the pen costs him a major city street grading contract.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The bids for the grading of Pike Street between Eighth and Twelfth streets were considered by the Board of Public Works yesterday, and after a lengthy argument, it was let to Taylor, Bailey & Co. for $13,700. H. M. Byerly, one of the bidders, claimed his bid to be the lowest, although he had made a clerical error in filling out his blank. The matter had been referred to Corporation Counsel Donworth for an opinion. In his reply, Mr. Donworth called attention to the fact that Mr. Byerly had bid 25 cents per pound for iron and specified no price for oak blocks, but stated at the time of the opening of the bids that he intended 25 cents to be the price of the oak blocks and 7 cents for iron. Donworth noted: 'As the charter requires the bids to be in writing, each bid must stand or fall by what is written in it and cannot be supplemented or contradicted by verbal statements.' Since Byerly made no valid bid for iron, his proposal was rejected in favor of Taylor, Bailey & Co.
“Each bid must stand or fall by what is written in it and cannot be supplemented or contradicted by verbal statements.”
This 1891 administrative headache over municipal contract transparency remains a staple of Seattle civic life, where the rigid language of procurement laws often clashes with the 'intent' of local business owners. The intersection of Pike and 8th/12th has transformed from a grading project into the heart of a dense, hyper-developed downtown corridor.
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