STATEMENT TO

[Second Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 1404

with Assembly Floor Amendments

(Proposed By Assemblyman DiGAETANO)

ADOPTED: JUNE 17, 1996

      These Assembly amendments provide that a defendant shall not be required to make payments for a violation subject to the bill if the court finds that the violation was caused by minor record keeping mistakes or computational errors or other minor mistakes. This differs from the bill without these amendments because it permits the court to consider minor mistakes other than minor record keeping mistakes and minor computational mistakes and it creates a rebuttable presumption that the mistakes or errors are not minor if there have been more than two violations by the defendant.

      The amendments provide that if a contract is awarded on a basis other than or in addition to the lowest bid, a loosing bidder who’s bid is the highest in rank other than the winning bidder may have standing to be a plaintiff.

      The amendments prevent a plaintiff from choosing any representative to maintain an action under the bill who does not have a direct interest in the action. To achieve this, the amendments require that a representative may maintain an action for the plaintiff only if the violation has an adverse effect on the representative or, if the representative is an organization, members of the organization. The amendments provide that if the plaintiff prevails, the representative is entitled to reimbursement for costs and reasonable attorney’s fees and other expenses, but not to a financial interest in the damages awarded.

      Finally, the amendments provide a mechanism for a losing bidder other than the second runner-up bidder to bring an action under the bill if no bidder of higher rank is interested in bringing an action.