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General Contractors Construction Contracts Breach of Contract

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Court Separates Facts from Fiction – Lack of Supporting Project Documents Dooms Contractor

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

Robinson+Cole Construction Law Zone

Robinson+Cole’s Amicus Brief Adopted and Cited by Massachusetts’s High Court

Earlier this year, the Associated Subcontractors of Massachusetts hired Robinson+Cole attorney Joseph Barra to submit an amicus brief to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for consideration in the appeal pending before...more

Hinckley Allen

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Releases Much-Anticipated Prompt Pay Act Decision

Hinckley Allen on

On June 17, 2024, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) issued its decision in Business Interiors Floor Covering Business Trust v. Graycor Construction Company, Inc. (“Graycor”).  The SJC’s decision addresses an...more

Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Interprets Prompt Pay Act for the First Time

On June 17, 2024, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued its first decision interpreting the Massachusetts Prompt Pay Act (the “PPA”). In Business Interiors Floor Covering Business Trust v. Graycor Construction Co., Inc.,[1]...more

Stoel Rives -  Ahead of Schedule

The Role of Liquidated Damages Provisions in Construction Contracts

Considering all that can go wrong on a construction site, it can seem like a miracle that anything is ever built. Construction projects can be massive undertakings, often with millions of dollars at stake, requiring the...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

Liquidated Damages Disproportionate to Actual Damages Deemed Unenforceable

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

BCLP

Can liquidated damages clauses set general cap?

BCLP on

A pair of cases in the past two years have come to opposite conclusions about whether general damages can be capped by contract provisions for liquidated damages. Liquidated damages clauses are a common feature of...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Limitation of Liability in Extra Work Order Trumped by Subcontract

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

Stoel Rives -  Ahead of Schedule

Efforts Expected of a Contractor When Efforts Clauses Are in Dispute

Originally published by the Daily Journal of Commerce on May 18, 2023. You will often see in construction contracts terms directing the contractor to use “best efforts” or “reasonable efforts” or “commercially reasonable...more

Stoel Rives -  Ahead of Schedule

What Parties Ought To Consider When Considering Arbitration Provisions

When reviewing a proposed design or construction contract, the responding party will often do a cursory check to see whether the contract proposes arbitration or litigation for dispute resolution. So long as the proposed...more

Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig PLLC

Harrell v. Deluca: Fraud, Construction, Litigation, And The Intention To Perform

On November 7, 2022, the United States District Court for the District of Virginia decided the case of Harrell v. Deluca, 1:20-cv-00087, which centered around a home builder and contractor who failed to successfully deliver...more

Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP

Judge Salinger Dismisses "Conclusory Assertions" Against Project Manager in Commercial Real Estate Dispute

Judge Salinger dismissed a real estate developer’s counterclaims against a project manager, ruling that the counterclaim allegations did not “plausibly suggest that [project manager] [wa]s liable for the contractor’s...more

Cranfill Sumner LLP

The Three Cases Shaking Up NC Construction Law

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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

BCLP

Scottish appeal court says NEC is not a charter for contract breaking

BCLP on

The September 2020 decision by the Scottish Court of Session in Van Oord UK v. Dragados UK [2020] CSOH 87, which has now been appealed. The dispute centred on the ability of Aberdeen Harbour expansion main contractor Dragados...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

North Carolina Muddies the Water on the Economic Loss Doctrine

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

Cole Schotz

Project Owners and General Contractors Take Note: Notice-to-Cure Provisions for Termination of Construction Contracts Cannot Be...

Cole Schotz on

Construction contracts generally outline various scenarios in which a party can terminate the contract. In one common scenario, a contractor is permitted to terminate its subcontractor “for cause” if the subcontractor...more

Stoel Rives -  Ahead of Schedule

Surety Bonds vs. Subcontractor Default Insurance

With construction teams navigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the world’s material supply chains, securing project performance has perhaps never been at such a premium. If a contractor cannot timely perform, or...more

Saul Ewing LLP

Sovereign Immunity Protects Public Texas University in Construction Dispute

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On December 1, 2020, the Court of Appeals of Texas (1st District) reversed a lower court decision and held that where a party fails to show that a public university defendant has expressly breached a contractual provision,...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

A Strict Approach to Notices as a Condition Precedent to Entitlement: The Impact for Contract Drafters and International...

Maeda Corporation and China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) Limited v Bauer Hong Kong Limited handed down in the Hong Kong Court of Appeal has significantly elevated the fundamental importance of so-called...more

Porter Hedges LLP

Lonergan Lives On—Fifth Circuit Affirms Contract Risk Allocation, Citing 110+ Year Old Texas Case

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The Fifth Circuit applying Texas law recently weighed in on whether a subcontractor could recover more than the contract balance from the general contractor when (1) the work proved more onerous than anticipated at...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Federal Prompt Pay Act Does Not Afford Subcontractors Right to Sue General Contractor

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

Ward and Smith, P.A.

Issues Impacting Enforceability of Liquidated Damages in Construction Contracts

Ward and Smith, P.A. on

Liquidated damages are a sum specified in a contract as the measure of recovery in the event of a breach of the contract. Liquidated damages provisions are common in construction contracts to guard against damages that the...more

Poyner Spruill LLP

Look Before You Leap: The Cost of Failing to Preserve Claims When Submitting Monthly Applications for Payment

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Subcontractors and contractors with pending construction contract claims, read your monthly application for payment, lien waiver, and change order forms closely before signing. Failure to do so may result in a costly waiver...more

Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC

[Webinar] Stipulated Sum and Liquidated Damages in Infrastructure Projects: What Are They, Are They Enforceable, and How Do You...

Most parties on a construction project know that a liquidated damage may be assessed for each day of the delay past a contract completion date. However, in infrastructure and highway contracts, there are many different events...more

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