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Construction Delays in the Time of Coronavirus: A Legal Perspective
It has been approximately two months since the newly established Texas business court system began accepting its first filings on September 1, 2024. This article provides a brief introductory overview of this new court system...more
All breaches are not created equal. A minor, technical breach may be deemed “immaterial.” Other breaches – so-called “material” breaches — deprive the non-breaching party of something important or essential to the purpose of...more
A recent decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida demonstrates how facts supported by documents generated during the project can be vital to prime contractor/subcontractor disputes. In...more
Construction law cases can involve a broad variety of issues, including breach of contract claims, construction delays, structural deficiencies/construction defect claims, environmental issues, and regulatory claims, among...more
The Court of Appeal has held that a party who prevents a condition precedent to their obligation to pay from being met cannot rely on the unfulfilled condition to escape their liability in debt....more
We previously blogged about the hotly contested dispute between AECOM and FlatIron involving the I-70 construction project outside of Denver. After an 18-day trial, the jury returned a verdict last month for plaintiff AECOM...more
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
Back in April we examined the court’s decision in Boldt v. Black & Veatch, which dismissed a subcontractor’s counterclaim for wrongful termination on a 60-turbine wind farm project. As you may recall, the subcontractor hired...more
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
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
Construction contacts often include provisions that provide for pre-determined or “liquidated” damages in the event of a breach. Such provisions can provide certainty to the parties as to the consequences of a breach and can...more
Who said legal opinions have to be boring? Not Judge Terrence L. Michael of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, who last week issued a colorful opinion rejecting a home builder’s creative claim...more
A federal court in Louisiana last week refused to enforce a limitation of liability provision included in an extra work order holding that it was trumped by the parties’ subcontract (see Planet Construction v. Gemini...more
In New Jersey, the “economic-loss doctrine” bars tort claims when the plaintiff’s only damages are economic in nature because, when parties enter into a contractual relationship, a contractual remedy flows from contract, not...more
Earlier this year, the Second District Court of Appeal of Florida held that a “no damages for delay” clause “will not be enforced in the face of governmental fraud, bad faith, or active interference with performance under the...more
The Tennessee Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion extending application of the economic loss doctrine to certain construction claims. Among other things, the economic loss doctrine prevents a party from recovering on...more
Lessons in Arbitration Construction Dispute - In December 2021, Alex Turner, Jeff Patton, and Lee Denton in Spilman's Winston-Salem office arbitrated a construction dispute in Norfolk, Virginia on behalf of Sure Lift,...more
Three cases have come out in the last year that will significantly impact construction law in North Carolina. - The Court in Crescent v. Trussway held that an owner of a commercial project cannot sue a subcontractor or...more
Zusammenfassung des Urteils des EuGH vom 18. Januar 2022 in der Rechtssache C-261/20 zur Anwendbarkeit der HOAI für Verträge, die vor dem 31.12.2020 (sog. "Altfälle") abgeschlossen wurden, gegen die Mindestsätze verstoßen und...more
A pair of recent rulings involving the economic loss doctrine from North Carolina serve as a timely reminder to carefully consider the extent of contractual remedies in negotiation of construction agreements – lest a later...more
Australia is a highly advanced mixed economy, but investors – often drawn to the country's economic stability and resilience – should be aware of certain clauses that typically appear in construction contracts. Australia...more
Construction contracts may be priced in a number of ways. For most contracts, even those which are "fixed price", there is usually scope for cost/price variability. Four cases from December 2020 highlight some of the...more
Dear YouDig?, We are a design builder. We hired a design team to do the preliminary design for our bid on a large DB project. We won the bid. Of course we warranted to the project owner that we would build the project, as...more
Often times, both contract and tort claims co-exist in a subrogation matter and the line between the two can be blurred. This is especially true in the context of damages resulting from new home construction defect claims....more
This Construction Law Alert highlights some of the significant Tennessee state and federal decisions affecting the construction industry from the past year. Holdback Payments Are Not Retainage - Tennessee’s Prompt Pay...more