[WEBINAR] Planning in the Coastal Zone
[WEBINAR] The Cost of Doing Business: Best Practices for Public Works Projects - Part One
This information memo is intended to provide an update on an area of law that affects many of our municipal and school district clients....more
A recent Colorado Court of Appeals sent ripples through the Colorado construction industry. In Ralph L. Wadsworth Constr. Co., LLC v. Reg’l Rail Partners et al. the Court of Appeals interpreted Colorado’s Public Works Act to...more
If your company performs work on public works projects in Pennsylvania, you should be following PA Senate Bill 841 (SB 841). Unless they are bound by a collective bargaining agreement, contractors working on public works jobs...more
A recent Washington Bill 5528, sponsored by the Northwest Wall and Ceiling Contractors Association and the American Subcontractors Association of Washington, along with many other industry trade groups, successfully passed...more
In Cell-Crete Corp. v. Fed. Ins. Co., a California court awarded a surety attorneys’ fees and costs that its principal incurred defending the surety against a claim on a public-works payment bond. This is good news for...more
For general contractors working in Virginia, 2023 marks the end of one of the more prolific contractual rights available—the pay-if-paid defense. Until now, pay-if-paid clauses were a valid means of shifting to subcontractors...more
While you may not have heard the term “slaughter clauses” to describe the provisions of a construction contract before, the metaphor makes sense when one considers the provisions to which the Connecticut Superior Court...more
In response to President Biden’s soon to be rolled out infrastructure and jobs package, which is set to increase federally funded construction and service projects developed by private companies, the DOL’s Wage and Hour...more
On June 26, 2020, Governor Ron DeSantis signed fifteen bills into law, including HB 441, a revision to the allowable maximum dollar amount for continuing contracts for construction projects. Increasing the dollar cap from $2...more
The Rhode Island Superior Court came down with a few interesting decisions this year concerning Rhode Island General Law Section 37-13.1-1. That statute deals with actions against the State of Rhode Island on Highway and...more
In the early hours of July 1, 2008, a comprehensive, multi-faceted piece of legislation was agreed upon in Albany between legislative leaders and our "accidental governor," David Paterson (i.e. elevated to the position as a...more
In a close 4 to 3 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court has affirmed the constitutionality of a state statute enacted in 2016 prohibiting public authorities, including municipalities and school districts, from requiring a certain...more
On September 24, 2019, the Ohio Supreme Court announced the General Assembly has broad authority to regulate public-works contracts that subject Ohio’s workers to residency preferences or restrictions. In The City of...more
The Supreme Court of the State of Washington issued its opinion in Nova Contracting Inc. v. City of Olympia, Docket No. 94711-2 on September 27, 2018, which hammers home the need for contractors to review the notice...more
In False Claims Act (“FCA”) cases, the Department of Justice and, where the government has declined to intervene, qui tam plaintiffs, routinely pursue aggressive damages theories. In its recent decision in U.S. ex rel. Wall...more
A Pennsylvania appellate court recently refused to enforce a “no damages for delay” clause and upheld an award of delay damages against a school district where the district actively interfered with a general contractor’s...more
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Project In(Site), Seyfarth’s Construction and Government Contracts practice groups’ publication focusing on decisions or other items of interest for construction and government contract...more
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York in U.W. Marx, Inc. v. Koko Contracting, Inc. affirmed judgment in favor of a subcontractor, holding that the general contractor’s failure to make three successive...more
Arizona law has long protected the rights of contractors, subcontractors and suppliers to prompt payment. However, all such protections have not extended to design professionals. For example, in 2013, the Arizona Court of...more
Joseph C. Kovars and Jackson B. Boyd of Ober|Kaler's Construction Group recently helped a client win a bid protest in Connecticut and secure a contract worth over $153,000,000 to improve and expand a water pollution control...more
All work and no pay making you crazy? A temporary suspension of work may be an appropriate self-help remedy for an owner’s or contractor’s non-payment. Although termination of the contract for the material breach of...more
In Carnell Construction Corp. v. Danville Redevelopment & Housing Authority, 745 F.3d 703 (2014), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the trial court’s ruling that, without government approval,...more
A recent Maryland Board of Public Works meeting addressed whether the state has flexibility in applying minority business enterprise (MBE) regulatory requirements in State contracts....more
Recent changes to California’s prevailing wage laws highlight the importance of complying with them. Prevailing wage laws are aimed at ensuring that a contractor’s ability to win a public works contract is not based on paying...more
In a surprising determination by the Department of Industrial Relations ("DIR"), a development was found to be a "public work" under Labor Code Section 1771 when a developer, in compliance with a fee ordinance, constructed...more