Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia
Advertised public sale, now threatened to be exclusory
Henrico County Virginia officials adverised many times, using many forms of the media, about a public sale of surplus school computers. Henrico officials are attempting to change an ordinance that will allow them to sell the computers to Henrico residents before offering the remainder, if any, to the general public. I feel that if the sale changes to exclusory after being advertised as public, that Hernrico county has breeched a contract, committed a discrimintory act, or used the media to perpetuate false advertising. I would like to know what type of suit, if any, can be filed against Henrico County if they change the city law, and change the public surplus sale into an aexclusory sale? Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated,
4 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Advertised public sale, now threatened to be exclusory
Correction to typo: The second public in my posted answer is a typo. The word private should be sustituted for this word as the answer was intended to read as...whether public or private entities or persons.
Re: Advertised public sale, now threatened to be exclusory
You might not have "legal standing" to sue as you would have to prove that you yourself would be damaged by the proposed sale. Probably the computers are out of date and would be a poor value in any event.
Re: Advertised public sale, now threatened to be exclusory
Advertisements, whether offered by public or public entities or persons, are generally recognized in the law as little more than "invitations to chaffer", meaning to bargain(to engage in light and teasing talk, according to Merriam-Webster's) and not as lawful contracts subject to breach and the remedies at law designed to redress such breaches.
Re: Advertised public sale, now threatened to be exclusory
I think it is very clear law that an advertisement
alone is not sufficient to create a contract. It
may be unfair. One of our great Supreme Court
Justices once commented that "sometimes the law
is an ass." So you may not feel it is fair,
but that is the law.
However, an entirely different question is whether
the County has the authority to do this under
Virginia law. Counties have very limited
authority, and have only that authority which is
explicitly granted to them by a statute, under
the Dillon Rule. I don't know about State
government contract, but I think it should be
looked at from that perspective.