You’re in the middle of a job and the party with whom you have a contract breaks a material term of the agreement. What does the law allow you to recover? The answer is found in the law of damages. While the law of damages can vary, some general principles typically apply in most jurisdictions in the
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 simplify the task of proving up damages at trial. However, as one contractor found out recently, courts may refuse to
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 for breach of contract damages. Here’s what happened:
The builder, Executive Homes, and the buyers, David and Gloria Potts
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 Insurance, 2023 WL 4675387 (W.D. La. July 20, 2023)). Planet Construction was the general contractor hired to construct the