FAIRFIELD CONNECTICUT BUILDING EXPERT
DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES

What Happens When a Secured Creditor Files a Late Claim in an Equity Receivership?

September 28, 2017 — Ben Reeves - Snell & Wilmer Real Estate Litigation Blog
Pitting a receivership court’s inherent equitable powers against pre-existing property rights can lead to some pretty interesting questions. In SEC v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 848 F.3d 1339, 1343-44 (11th Cir. 2017), the Eleventh Circuit recently examined whether a district court’s inherent authority to establish a claims submission process allowed the court to extinguish a security interest in real property based solely upon an untimely proof of claim. Much to the relief of secured creditors, the Eleventh Circuit held that the district court erred, as a matter of law, by extinguishing the creditor’s pre-existing property rights under those circumstances. Introduction Equity vests a district court with “‘broad powers and wide discretion to determine relief in an equity receivership.’” Wells Fargo, 848 F.3d at 1343-44 (quoting SEC v. Elliot, 953 F.2d 1560, 1566 (11th Cir. 1992)). These powers include: (i) establishing procedures for the submission of claims to a receiver, and (ii) setting a claims bar date. Id. at 1344 (citing SEC v. Tipco, Inc., 554 F.2d 710, 711 (5th Cir. 1977)). Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Ben Reeves, Snell & Wilmer
Mr. Reeves may be contacted at breeves@swlaw.com

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Fort Lauderdale Partner Secures Defense Verdict for Engineering Firm in High-Stakes Negligence Case

June 10, 2024 — Lewis Brisbois Newsroom
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (June 3, 2024) - Fort Lauderdale Managing Partner Cheryl Wilke recently secured a defense verdict for civil engineering firm Gulfstream Design Group and its owner, Matthew Lahti, in a high-stakes professional negligence case in which the plaintiff sought more than $20 million. The verdict by a six-person jury in St. Augustine followed a nine-day trial. The case involved a 100-acre tract of land in St. Johns County, Florida, owned by the plaintiff, Cynthia Taylor. The land was zoned for rural farming, and she wished to sell the property for development. She entered into a contract with Southeast Georgia Acquisitions (“SGA”) to sell the property with the goal of creating a 200-home subdivision. SGA hired Doug Burnett as land use counsel and our client, Gulfstream Design Group, as the civil engineer to design the project. In St. Johns County, only a property owner can submit a Planned Unit Development Plan (“PUD”) for the purpose of rezoning. In this case, Burnett and Gulfstream created text and a proposed map for the PUD and submitted it for approval. The PUD was approved first at the staff level, then by planning and zoning and then by the County Commission. All the services were provided prior to closing with PUD approval, a condition of sale. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Lewis Brisbois

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Vertical vs. Horizontal Exhaustion – California Supreme Court Issues Ruling Favorable to Policyholders

May 11, 2020 — Alan Packer & James Hultz - Newmeyer Dillion
For years, when faced with damage or injury spanning several policy periods, excess general liability insurers have argued that all potentially applicable underlying policies must be exhausted before the excess drops down to provide coverage (“horizontal exhaustion”). Insureds, on the other hand, insist that they are entitled to immediately access an excess policy for any given policy year, if that year’s underlying policy has exhausted (“vertical exhaustion”). Vertical exhaustion not only enables insureds to directly tap into the excess insurance for which they paid substantial premiums, but also enables the insured to moderate risk given that different lower level policies might (1) be needed for other claims, (2) have larger self-insured retentions, or (3) have other less favorable coverage provisions. Allowing an insured to proceed via vertical exhaustion would also eliminate the heavy administrative and logistical burden that could result from having to pursue and exhaust all underlying coverage on multi-year claims. In Montrose Chemical Corp. v. Superior Court, 2020 WL 1671560 (April 6, 2020), the California Supreme Court has come down in favor of policyholders and vertical exhaustion. The Montrose case involved contamination that allegedly occurred between 1947 and 1982 and different liability insurance towers (comprised of primary and excess layers) for each year. The insured, Montrose, maintained a tower of insurance coverage, year by year, and faced claims asserting damage that spanned several decades. Montrose sought coverage from excess insurers under a vertical exhaustion approach. Not surprisingly, Montrose’s excess insurers insisted that horizontal exclusion was required and that Montrose was required to exhausted all other policies with lower attachment points in every single involved policy period. The California Supreme Court ruled in Montrose’s favor, holding that the insured may insist upon full coverage from an excess insurer once the layer directly below it has exhausted. The Court reasoned that the burden of spreading the loss among insurers is one that is appropriately borne by insurers, not insureds. Reprinted courtesy of Alan H. Packer, Newmeyer Dillion and James S. Hultz, Newmeyer Dillion Mr. Packer may be contacted at alan.packer@ndlf.com Mr. Hultz may be contacted at james.hultz@ndlf.com Read the court decision
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Housing Starts Surge 23% in Comeback for Canadian Builders

July 15, 2019 — Theophilos Argitis - Bloomberg
Canadian housing starts unexpectedly surged in April, in another sign of recovery for the nation’s battered real estate market. Builders started work on an annualized 235,460 units last month, the highest level in 10 months and up 23 percent from 191,981 units in March, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported Wednesday. The gain was driven by new multi-unit construction in Toronto and Vancouver. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Theophilos Argitis, Bloomberg

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Seattle Expands Bridge Bioswale Projects

May 11, 2020 — Jim Parsons - Engineering News-Record
The success of engineered systems to capture stormwater runoff from Seattle’s Aurora Avenue Bridge has spurred construction of additional measures that proponents say will increase total filtering capacity by another two million gallons per year. Jim Parsons, Engineering News-Record ENR may be contacted at ENR.com@bnpmedia.com Read the full story... Read the court decision
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Ten Years After Colorado’s Adverse Possession Amendment: a brief look backwards and forwards

September 25, 2018 — Luke Mecklenburg - Snell & Wilmer Real Estate Litigation Blog
In response to national outrage over an infamous adverse possession case in Boulder, Colorado, in which a lawyer and a judge intentionally took their neighbors’ undeveloped land through adverse possession, the Colorado legislature amended the state’s adverse possession statute (C.R.S. § 38-41-101) to make the claim significantly harder to prove. It did this because it believed “there were insufficient ‘obstacles’ to establishing a claim for adverse possession under the existing law.”[1] Effective July 1, 2008, the amendment created a heightened burden of proof, additional element requirements, and the possibility of a losing defendant recovering money from successful plaintiffs for the value of the land they took and the taxes the defendant had paid on that land. The Boulder case eventually settled, but the resulting statutory amendments have drastically changed the landscape of Colorado’s adverse possession law. Ten years later, this blog post takes a brief look at the amended statute, the impact it has had, and questions that have yet to be resolved. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Luke Mecklenburg, Snell & Wilmer
Mr. Mecklenburg may be contacted at lmecklenburg@swlaw.com

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Ten Newmeyer & Dillion Attorneys Selected to the Best Lawyers in America© 2019

September 17, 2018 — Newmeyer & Dillion
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – AUGUST 15, 2018 – Prominent business and real estate law firm Newmeyer & Dillion LLP is pleased to announce that ten of the firm's Newport Beach attorneys were recently recognized in their respective practice areas in The Best Lawyers in America© 2019. Attorneys named to The Best Lawyers in America, include:

Jason M. Caruso Personal Injury Litigation - Plaintiffs Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

Michael S. Cucchissi Real Estate Law

Jeffrey M. Dennis Insurance Law

Gregory L. Dillion Commercial Litigation Construction Law Insurance Law Litigation - Construction Litigation - Real Estate

Joseph A. Ferrentino Litigation - Construction Litigation - Real Estate

Thomas F. Newmeyer Commercial Litigation Litigation - Real Estate

John O'Hara Litigation - Construction

Bonnie T. Roadarmel Insurance Law

Jane Samson Real Estate Law

Carol Sherman Zaist Commercial Litigation

Best Lawyers is the oldest peer-review publication within the legal profession with a history of over 35 years. Attorneys are selected through exhaustive peer-review surveys in which leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. Their listings are published in 75 countries worldwide and are recognized for their reliable and unbiased selections. Newmeyer & Dillion is immensely proud of these lawyers and looks forward to their continued contributions to the firm, and the Orange County community as a whole. About Newmeyer & Dillion For almost 35 years, Newmeyer & Dillion has delivered creative and outstanding legal solutions and trial results for a wide array of clients. With over 70 attorneys practicing in all aspects of cybersecurity and privacy, corporate, employment, real estate, construction, insurance law and trial work, Newmeyer & Dillion delivers legal services tailored to meet each client's needs. 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 have been given Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review's AV Preeminent® highest rating. For additional information, call 949.854.7000 or visit www.ndlf.com. Read the court decision
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Best Lawyers Recognizes Twenty White and Williams Lawyers

September 04, 2018 — White and Williams LLP
Twenty White and Williams lawyers were recognized on the 2019 Best Lawyers in America list. Inclusion in Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer-review. The methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area. Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of quality legal services. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of White and Williams LLP

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