A Yukon Supreme Court judge ruled that more than $4 million in public construction contracts will go to a B.C.-based company because Whitehorse firm P.S. Sidhu Trucking submitted its bid several seconds too late.

Justice Ron Veale said in a ruling late Friday afternoon that a Sidhu representative handed in its $4.2-million bid to rebuild the Tatchun Creek Bridge after the 4 p.m. deadline on Aug. 15, 2013.

The clock at the Department of Highways and Public Works had just struck four – past the stated deadline set in the tender document.

That means the public tender will go to the next-lowest bidder, CMF Construction, a general contracting firm based on Vancouver Island. Its bid to rebuild the bridge was for roughly $4.8 million.

Tatchun Creek Bridge is located north of Carmacks just past the Five Finger Rapids.

On Aug. 15, a Sidhu representative submitted a bid at 3:59 p.m., according to the witnesses as well as the procurement centre time stamp.

However, the representative then asked for the bid back, unsealed it, made a mark on the document and returned it. The bid was stamped again, this time reading 4 p.m.

"While this may have been a perfectly innocent event, it is a clear breach of the instructions ... and violates the integrity and fairness of the bidding process,” Veale said.

"Last-minute jockeying for tendering is ripe for abuse.”

At one point, the outcome of the legal battle seemed to rest partly on the definition of 4 p.m. itself.

Government lawyers stated that Sidhu's bid was received "on the stated deadline of 4 p.m.” – that is, within the period of 4:00 and 59 seconds.

Veale ultimately decided that was irrelevant, since the instructions said to submit the bid "before the specified time,” and not a second after.

"One thing is for sure: if you arrive early, you won't have this problem,” he said.

"Time is money,” he added. "And time has meant a great deal of money to the lawyers here today ....”