Pub. Contract Code, § 5101 · Chapter 5. Relief of Bidders
Pub. Contract Code, § 5101
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A bidder shall not be relieved of the bid unless by consent of the awarding authority nor shall any change be made in the bid because of mistake, but the bidder may bring an action against the public entity in a court of competent jurisdiction in the county in which the bids were opened for the recovery of the amount forfeited, without interest or costs. If the plaintiff fails to recover judgment, the plaintiff shall pay all costs incurred by the public entity in the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee to be fixed by the court.
(b) If an awarding authority for the state consents to relieve a bidder of a bid because of mistake, the authority shall prepare a report in writing to document the facts establishing the existence of each element required by Section 5103. The report shall be available for inspection as a public record. In the case of the University of California or a California State University, the report shall be filed with the regents and the trustees, respectively, and shall be available as a public record.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1994, Ch. 726, Sec. 21. Effective September 22, 1994.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PCC§ionNum=5101.
- Text hash
- sha256 ab14bfc306abf078765db776a5204ac3a5db7e4bf1bfea61ebeda75c2f76ab92
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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Public Contract Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.