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Contract Terms Contract Interpretation Construction Contracts

BCLP

Conditions Precedent and Time Bars, Getting Around Them

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When a party fails to comply with a condition precedent, especially if such a provision includes a time limit for the fulfilment of the obligation, it will often advance various arguments to avoid the consequences of...more

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Transferring Project Design Risk

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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

New York is Pro-Choice on Forum Selection Clauses

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

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

Allen Matkins on

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

BCLP

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

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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

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