SEATTLE WASHINGTON BUILDING EXPERT
DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES

Before and After the Storm: Know Your Insurance Rights, Coverages and Obligations

October 04, 2021 — Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog
This year, like last, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts an extremely active hurricane season. As we write this alert, the Gulf Coast, Mid-Atlantic, New York, and New England regions are just now realizing the devastation Ida has left in her path. Now is the time to ensure your insurance program is hurricane-ready. In this client alert, our insurance coverage team provides critical steps that you should take now to ensure that you protect your assets and maximize recovery in the unfortunate event of a hurricane claim. Know Your Coverage: What Does Your Policy Say and Where Can It Be Found? Obtain copies of your relevant property insurance forms and read them now. Knowing your coverage, even on a general level, will help you anticipate the immediate steps to take following a loss, including how to notify your insurer of losses to your covered property. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Hunton Andrews Kurth

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Newmeyer Dillion Announces Jessica Garland as Its Newest Partner

January 16, 2024 — Newmeyer Dillion
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. – January 10, 2024 – Prominent business and real estate law firm Newmeyer Dillion is pleased to announce that Newport Beach attorney Jessica Garland has been elected to partnership. Garland focuses her practice on employment law and construction law. In her employment practice, Jessica defends companies against numerous types of employment-related claims including claims for discrimination, wrongful termination, harassment, retaliation, unfair competition, wage and hour violations, employee misclassifications, and Cal/OSHA citations. Garland's practice also includes work in residential and commercial construction. Jessica represents residential developers in complex, multi-party construction defect disputes. In commercial construction, Jessica is focused on defending general contractors in all aspects of construction litigation including delay claims, mechanic's lien claims, defect litigation claims, ADA claims, and construction contract disputes. About Newmeyer Dillion For over 35 years, Newmeyer Dillion has delivered creative and outstanding legal solutions and trial results that achieve client objectives in diverse industries. With over 60 attorneys working as a cohesive team to represent clients in all aspects of business, employment, real estate, environmental/land use, privacy & data security and insurance law, Newmeyer Dillion delivers holistic and integrated legal services tailored to propel each client's operations, growth, and profits. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with offices in Walnut Creek, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, Newmeyer Dillion attorneys are recognized by The Best Lawyers in America©, and Super Lawyers as top tier and some of the best lawyers in California and Nevada, and have been given Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review's AV Preeminent® highest rating. For additional information, call 949.854.7000 or visit www.newmeyerdillion.com. Read the court decision
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What are Section 8(f) Agreements?

July 02, 2018 — Wally Zimolong – Supplemental Conditions
Like many areas of federal labor law, there are different rules for construction industry employers. One major difference is in how employers become unionized. Typically, under Section 9(a) of the National Labor Relations Act, a union becomes a collective bargaining agent of employees only after a majority of employees show support for union representation. In other words, the employees chose whether to be represented by a particular union. However, under Section 8(f) of the NLRA, construction industry employers can choose to become union without any showing of majority support by employees. In fact, construction industry employers don’t need to have any employees at all to sign a “8(f) agreement.” Thus, these agreements have become known as pre-hire agreements. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Wally Zimolong, Zimolong LLC
Mr. Zimolong may be contacted at wally@zimolonglaw.com

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Daily Reports – The Swiss Army Knife of Project Documentation

June 08, 2020 — Christopher A. Henry - ConsensusDocs
Project “Daily Reports” are some of the most important, yet overlooked aspects of a construction project. These reports serve many beneficial roles such as holding parties accountable to their obligations, providing the basis for an as-built schedule, recording manpower, documenting site conditions, and recording any other important and relevant information that happened on the job site that day. Daily reports can also provide information to help with claims or disputes that may arise in the future, such as noting weather delays, providing backup for future delay claims, and providing information to dispute claims made against your company. Finally, daily reports also serve as a useful communication tool during the project and a source of real time information for parties that want to know how the work is commencing on a day to day basis. Because daily reports are the “Swiss army knife” of project documentation, it is extremely important that a contractor puts for its best effort when creating them. It is no secret that a construction project can become more chaotic as the schedule progresses. Unfortunately, when that is the case, the effort put into creating these reports drops off and sometimes the responsibility of creating such reports is thrown aside altogether. I can speak from experience. Prior to entering the practice of law, I was a project engineer for a general contractor in Atlanta. As an engineer in the field, one of my many responsibilities was to enter the daily reports. Based off this experience, below are some thoughts on how to prepare useful daily reports. 1. Check the contract. The contract you entered may set forth specific requirements for the daily reports, such as where to file them, the required format, and specific information that must be included. Complying with contractual requirements is necessary for a successful project. One word of caution for subcontractors, a subcontract will often incorporate the prime contract. If that is the case, be sure to check the prime contract for any specific language relating to daily reports. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Christopher A. Henry, Jones Walker LLP
Mr. Henry may be contacted at chenry@joneswalker.com

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Ohio “property damage” caused by an “occurrence.”

May 18, 2011 — CDCoverage.com

In JTO, Inc. v. State Automobile Mut. Ins. Co., No. 2010-L-062 (Ohio Ct. App. March 25, 2011), general contractor JTO was sued by hotel project owner Marriott for breach of contract and warranties seeking damages for the repair of construction defects resulting in moisture penetration property damage to interior components. JTO filed a third party complaint against subcontractor Farizel and also tendered its defense as an additional insured under Farizel’s State Auto CGL policy.



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Reprinted courtesy of CDCoverage.com



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Census Bureau, HUD Show Declines in Residential Construction



May 17, 2011 – CDJ Staff



The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released their summary of residential construction for April 2011 on May 17.



Building permits for privately owned housing units were down 4% from last month and 12% from last year. Similarly, privately-owned housing starts were down 10% from March and 23% below the previous year.



For further details, read the Census Bureau/HUD report

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Solar and Wind Just Passed Another Big Turning Point

October 21, 2015 — Tom Randall – Bloomberg
Wind power is now the cheapest electricity to produce in both Germany and the U.K., even without government subsidies, according to a new analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). It's the first time that threshold has been crossed by a G7 economy.1increase click area But that's less interesting than what just happened in the U.S. To appreciate what's going on there, you need to understand the capacity factor. That's the percentage of a power plant's maximum potential that's actually achieved over time. Consider a solar project. The sun doesn't shine at night and, even during the day, varies in brightness with the weather and the seasons. So a project that can crank out 100 megawatt hours of electricity during the sunniest part of the day might produce just 20 percent of that when averaged out over a year. That gives it a 20 percent capacity factor. One of the major strengths of fossil fuel power plants is that they can command very high and predictable capacity factors. The average U.S. natural gas plant, for example, might produce about 70 percent of its potential (falling short of 100 percent because of seasonal demand and maintenance). But that's what's changing, and it's a big deal. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tom Randall, Bloomberg

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Construction Defect Litigation in Nevada Called "Out of Control"

February 04, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
KXNT Las Vegas's Trevor Smith reports that Las Vegas alone has more than 500 pending construction defect cases. The issue of construction defects in Nevada will be taken up by the Nevada Legislature. Smith spoke with Mike Dillon, the executive director of the Builders Association of Northern Nevada. BANN is supporting legislation that Dillon says will "protect homeowners and secondly it's going to put people back to work." Dillon noted that "construction is the second largest industry in the state." Dillon attributed some of the construction defect litigation to the state's building codes. Read the court decision
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The DOL Claims Most Independent Contractors Are Employees

August 04, 2015 — Craig Martin – Construction Contract Advisor
On July 15, 2015, the Department of Labor issued an Administrator’s Interpretation asserting that most independent contractors are actually employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The DOL claims that the FLSA’s broad definition of employment and “suffer to work” standard under the FLSA requires that most workers be treated as employees. The certainly appears to be the DOL’s warning shot over the bow and companies using independent contractors should take heed. The most startling aspect of the Administrative Interpretation is the application of the economic realities test in concluding that workers who are economically dependent on the company, regardless of skill level, are employees under the FLSA’s broad definition of employee. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Craig Martin, Lamson, Dugan and Murray, LLP
Mr. Martin may be contacted at cmartin@ldmlaw.com

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