Current Coal Contracts

PACKEL, Attorney General,

We have received a request for an opinion from your department asking whether the Department of Property and Supplies can negotiate a price increase for vendors *504of coal who have contracted to supply coal for the Commonwealth. Since the price of coal has increased substantially in recent months, the vendors will sustain losses on their contracts unless the contract prices are renegotiated. It is our opinion, and you are so advised, that a renegotiation of the contract so as to increase the vendor’s compensation is not legal.

A renegotiation of a contract implies the…