Murphy & Sons, Inc. v. DeSoto County Board of Supervisors

ROBERTS, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Today’s case requires us to carefully consider the distinction between responsible bidders and responsive bids in the public-construction-contract arena. In general parlance, a responsible bidder is one who meets the appropriate and lawful qualifications to bid on the invitation. A responsive bid, on the other hand, is a bid that appropriately responds to the specifications of the invitation. Panola Construction Co., Inc. (Panola) and Murphy & Sons, Inc. (Murphy) claim the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors (Board) impermissi-bly and unlawfully combined these…