Late last year, a federal trial court in New York awarded a solar development company $11.6 million in damages against Suffolk County arising out of a dispute on a multi-site carport solar construction project. The basis for this substantial award? The County failed to satisfy its obligation to cooperate with the developer on permitting issues … Continue Reading
An issue that repeatedly comes up in construction disputes is the scope of an arbitration agreement. Courts generally interpret agreements to arbitrate broadly, and, where the arbitrability of a specific claim has been at issue, courts often defer, allowing such questions to be answered by the arbitrator. One recent opinion from the Ninth Circuit followed … Continue Reading
The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) recently tackled a contractor’s claim for pre-construction costs following termination for convenience by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In Pro-Built Construction Firm (June 1, 2017), the Board addressed a dispute arising out of a 2011 contract to construct a police station in Afghanistan. Eight months after … Continue Reading
As discussed in a May blog article, the American Association of Architects (AIA) revise their form agreements between owner and contractor approximately every 10 years, and these form documents were recently revised by the AIA a couple of months ago. This article focuses on comparing the changes from the 2007 version to the 2017 version … Continue Reading
Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott signed HB 377 providing for revisions to the Florida statutes of limitation and repose governing construction claims. The new law revises Fla. Stat. Sec. 95.11 (Limitations Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property) to clear up some confusion regarding when the statutes of limitations and repose begin to run. Under … Continue Reading
Mandatory arbitration clauses have become commonplace in construction contracts. Various groups have formulated generic arbitration language to insert into disputes clauses of contracts. A good example of such language comes from the AIA suite of forms and reads, in part: Any Claim arising out of or related to the Contract…shall…be subject to arbitration. Prior to … Continue Reading
For almost 130 years, the American Association of Architects (AIA) has published form construction documents. The AIA family of documents is among the most popular and commonly used form construction documents in the construction industry. The last time that AIA issued major changes to the contract family of documents was 2007. Historically, AIA has issued … Continue Reading
Every construction project has a contract (written, preferably), and they often vary in size and scope depending on the nature and complexity of a project. Many construction industry participants have developed their own contract forms, and others rely on industry standard contract forms such as the AIA and ConsensusDocs standard forms. ConsensusDocs forms evolved from … Continue Reading
Ever wonder about a superfast arbitration procedure in a contract that you have been given? An arbitration clause requiring an arbitration panel to issue a decision within 30 days of being selected for the panel was recently challenged on a construction project in the Carolinas. Our firm was asked to provide assistance in handling a … Continue Reading
In a recent case handled by Bradley, a federal court in Maryland issued a decision attempting to reconcile inconsistent contract provisions. The general contractor said that its fire sprinkler subcontractor was responsible for the burst sprinkler pipe and the resulting property damage based on the “Assumption of Liability” provision in the subcontract, which stated that … Continue Reading
