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Contract Interpretation Construction Contracts Construction Industry

Conn Kavanaugh

Update Your Construction Contract! Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Holds that Breach of Contractual Indemnity Provision is...

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Under the Massachusetts statute of repose, tort claims involving improvements to real estate generally must be initiated within six years of the improvement’s opening to use. So, for example, if a worker suffers a jobsite...more

BCLP

Shifting Contractual Risks and Managing Electronic Contracts

BCLP on

In this Insight, Shy Jackson takes a look at the decision of John Sisk and Son Limited v Capital & Centric (Rose) Limited [2025] EWHC 594 (TCC) where the court had to grapple with interpreting a contract which was kept on a...more

JAMS

The Complexities of Construction Dispute Resolution, Part I: Statutory Adjudication

JAMS on

While disputes can occur in any type of commercial transaction, construction contains a unique mix of “ingredients” that increase the likelihood that disputes will arise. Whereas most commercial transactions involve only a...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Mississippi Passes New Retainage Law Governing Private Construction Jobs

Construction contracts for private projects will soon be subject to a new retainage law in Mississippi. On April 19, 2024, Gov. Tate Reeves approved SB 2762 into law, and after July 1, 2024, most construction contracts on...more

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Transferring Project Design Risk

Vinson & Elkins LLP on

Some construction industry commentators have urged a more integrated approach to design and construction, with equitable risk sharing and an effort to ensure that project design will benefit from the experience of companies...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

How to Deal with Retainage on Alabama Public Projects

Retainage can be tricky in Alabama, particularly on public projects. In this post, we address retainage on public projects for public owners in the state (e.g., a governmental board, commission, agency, body, authority,...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Court Rejects Contractor’s Claim That COVID-19 Rendered Performance Impossible

A fundamental premise of contract law is that promises must be kept. If legally enforceable promises or “contracts” are not kept, courts may step in to enforce them by ordering performance, awarding damages, or granting some...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

The Basics of Contract Interpretation: A Primer for Non-Lawyers in the Construction Industry

Every first year law student in the U.S. takes a course on the Law of Contracts. It’s a rite of passage where lawyers-to-be learn all about things like consideration and legally-enforceable promises. And as lawyers, we also...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Contextual “Construction” of Force Majeure Clauses

The Texas Supreme Court recently provided new guidance in interpreting force majeure language in an oil and gas drilling dispute. In Point Energy Partners Permian, LLC v. MRC Permian Company, the court held that the oil and...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

No Written Change Order? No Problem! Court Sides with Subcontractor in Payment Dispute

Many contracts contain provisions requiring that changes to a contract be in writing and signed by a particular authorized person. Under such provisions, work done without proper written authorization will not be...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

You’ve Gotta Fight For Your Right To Get Paid: The Right To Stop Work

A contractor is halfway through the (timely) completion of a project and the owner’s payment is late. Days, weeks go by, and now the contractor is incurring all the costs of the work without any compensation. It might be...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Quick Thoughts for Construction Contracting: Don’t Overlook the Entities – Part 1

Sometimes the best advice is the advice we already know, but a timely reminder makes all the difference. In this first blog post of the series, the advice is exactly that. Get the right entities on the dotted lines. ...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Promises to Pay Sub-subcontractor may Expose General Contractor to Liability for Unjust Enrichment

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

Allen Matkins

In This Case, The "Crux Of The Biscuit" Was The Missing Apostrophe

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Consider the following provision of in a contract between a general contractor and a subcontractor...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Federal Court Rules Contractor Is Not Intended Third-Party Beneficiary under Owner-Engineer Agreement

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

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Appellate Court asks Florida Supreme Court: What Kind of Damages Are Repair Costs?

On January 25, 2019, a Florida appellate court certified the following question to the Florida Supreme Court...more

BCLP

Practically complete or completely impractical? Navigating the pitfalls of what constitutes practical completion

BCLP on

Many a construction dispute turns on defects. A significant subset of those turn on whether the existence of defects prevents practical completion from taking place. Originally published on the Practical Law Construction...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

My Roof, My Rules: Arbitrators May Determine Their Own Jurisdiction When the Parties Delegate that Authority

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

Buchalter

Construction Contracts And Arbitration Provisions: Is The Word “May” Mandatory? Maybe!

Buchalter on

You don’t always say what you mean. And you don’t always mean what you say. In construction contracts, parties attempt to use plain and ordinary words to describe their respective obligations....more

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