The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals recently reversed, in part, and affirmed, in part, a lower court decision regarding dismissal of contractual indemnity and implied indemnity claims. WW Consultants was the design...more
10/24/2023
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Construction Contracts ,
Construction Defects ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Litigation ,
Contractors ,
Design Defects ,
Indemnity Claim ,
Negligence ,
State and Local Government ,
VA Supreme Court
On complex construction projects, there may be multiple contractors, subcontractors, vendors, suppliers, and sub-subcontractors working along side one another. With various entities working parallel there are substantial...more
Indiana, like other states, has a strong policy favoring arbitration agreements, and Indiana courts construe arbitration clauses broadly to make matters abitrable so long as they reasonably fit within the language of the...more
A federal district court in Washington recently rejected a subcontractor’s motion for reconsideration of a previously granted motion to stay in a Miller Act lawsuit (the Miller Act governs prime contractor bond requirements...more
12/8/2021
/ Appeals ,
Bonds ,
Construction Contracts ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Litigation ,
Construction Project ,
Contract Disputes Act ,
Contractors ,
Miller Act ,
Stays ,
Subcontractors ,
Subcontracts
When negotiating a complex change order or preparing to litigate a claim, calculating actual recoverable costs incurred can be a difficult exercise. You will want to first review your contract to determine what kinds of costs...more
It is the rare construction project that is completed without any change in the work. In most sophisticated construction projects, the contractual mechanism for managing these changes involves the issuance of a change order....more
On October 15, 2020, in EMTA Insaat Taahhut ve Ticaret A.S. v. Cosmopolitan Incorporated, a federal district court held that the federal Prompt Pay Act (PPA) (31 U.S.C. §§ 3901, et al.) does not create a private right of...more
On June 24, 2020, in Sayers Constr., LLC v. Timberline Constr., Inc., et al., a Florida District Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court’s denial of a contractor’s motion to dismiss. The contractor moved to dismiss for lack of...more
7/29/2020
/ American Arbitration Association ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Awards ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Construction Contracts ,
Construction Industry ,
Contractors ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Personal Jurisdiction ,
Subcontractors
Liens represent one of the primary mechanisms by which contractors, subcontractors, and other downstream parties secure payment rights under a construction contract. When utilized properly, filing a lien may induce an owner...more
In Somerset Fine Home Building, Inc. v. Simplex Industries, Inc., the Appellate Division of the Second Department in New York upheld a dismissal based on the plaintiff’s breach of the parties’ forum selection clause. Somerset...more
In most jurisdictions, a party may be excused from any future performance under a contract by the prior material breach of the other party. A “prior material breach” is typically defined as conduct that deprives the injured...more
Whether an arbitration agreement is enforceable is a frequently litigated matter in construction disputes. Federal policy strongly favors arbitration. Typically, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) will preempt any contrary...more
On May 14, 2020, in James G. Davis Constr. Corp. v. FTJ, Inc., the Virginia Supreme Court upheld a judgment on an unjust enrichment claim in favor of FTJ, a drywall supplier on a condominium project, against Davis, the...more
On May 5, 2020, the Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court summary judgment ruling dismissing a residential contractor’s claims against an owner because the contractor was not properly licensed. In LFR Investments,...more
In March, a Massachusetts federal court addressed whether a design-builder contractor could recover for breach of contract under an intended third-party beneficiary theory against a design firm hired by the project owner to...more
On January 25, 2019, a Florida appellate court certified the following question to the Florida Supreme Court...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the application of Oregon’s anti-indemnity statute to a contractual indemnity provision requiring a sub-subcontractor’s insurer to indemnify the subcontractor for the...more
If you have been involved in the construction industry for any substantial amount of time, you have likely encountered an individual or an entity on a project who appears to be completely unreasonable or irrational. You may...more
On March 9, 2018, the Georgia Court of Appeals reaffirmed the applicability of Georgia’s contractor licensing requirements (Ga. Code, Title 43, Ch. 41) to residential and general contractors. In Baja Properties, LLC v....more
Fla. Stat. § 725.06 limits the scope of indemnification provisions in construction contracts. Specifically, the statute limits the ability of an indemnitee (e.g., owner) to require an indemnitor (e.g., contractor) to...more
2/9/2018
/ Construction Contracts ,
Construction Disputes ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Litigation ,
Construction Project ,
Florida ,
Indemnification ,
Public Improvement Projects ,
State and Local Government ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Utilities Sector ,
Utility Poles
An issue that repeatedly comes up in construction disputes is the scope of an arbitration agreement. Courts generally interpret agreements to arbitrate broadly, and, where the arbitrability of a specific claim has been at...more
9/21/2017
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Construction Contracts ,
Construction Disputes ,
Construction Industry ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Interpretation ,
Energy Sector ,
Federal Contractors ,
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company ,
Performance Bonds
Mandatory arbitration clauses have become commonplace in construction contracts. Various groups have formulated generic arbitration language to insert into disputes clauses of contracts. A good example of such language comes...more
As solar technology continues to become more efficient, construction of solar plants is expanding rapidly around the world, including in colder environments that, in the past, may have lacked the irradiance necessary to make...more
The operation and applicability of prompt pay acts in various states is something that contractors ignore to their detriment. A recent Tennessee case drives home the importance of understanding the applicability of any prompt...more