Seattle Washington Building Expert Directory

The New Jersey Theme Park Where Kids’ Backhoe Dreams Come True

April 13, 2017 — Patrick Clark - Bloomberg
There is probably only one place in America where an eight-year-old can ride a carousel whose seats look like excavator buckets, then swipe at bowling pins with a mini-digger—where, for a ticket price of less than $40, he or she can operate a backhoe, drive a drum-roller, and ride the telescoping arm of a construction lift 50 feet into the air to admire the Philadelphia skyline. That place is a small theme park in West Berlin, N.J., called Diggerland USA. Diggerland opened for the season in March, but even on a recent visit when the park was closed, its discordant appeal was obvious: Small children get to climb into the cabs of heavy-duty construction equipment. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Patrick Clark, Bloomberg
Mr. Clark may be followed on Twitter @pat_clark

Health Officials Concerned About Lead-Tainted Dust Created by Detroit Home Demolitions

August 20, 2018 — Engineering News-Record
DETROIT (AP) — The nation's largest home-demolition program, which has torn down more than 14,000 vacant houses across Detroit , may have inadvertently created a new problem by spreading lead-contaminated dust through some of the city's many hollowed-out neighborhoods. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Engineering News-Record
ENR may be contacted at ENR.com@bnpmedia.com

Former Owner Not Liable for Defects Discovered After Sale

January 29, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
In a “tentative decision” by Judge Steven Kleifield, Mark Van Peebles and a real estate company have been exonerated “of any liability in a lawsuit involving the sale of the actor’s Playa del Rey condominium, whose buyer says he discovered mold and a flooring defect,” according to the Patch. However, the judge “ordered the Waterfront Homeowners Association to pay Adel Bebawy $26,217 for repair work on the floor and the kitchen as well as civil penalties for not keeping him informed about board meetings.” The suit began in 2009 after Bebawy alleged “he discovered the floor had a severe slope and that there was significant mold in a bathroom,” reported the Patch. Kleifield, however, stated that the mold didn’t affect the condo’s value. Furthermore, Kleifield wrote that the sloping didn’t become an issue until Bebawy began installing a hardwood floor. Read the court decision
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UPDATE: Texas Federal Court Permanently Enjoins U.S. Department of Labor “Persuader Rule” Requiring Law Firms and Other Consultants to Disclose Work Performed for Employers on Union Organization Efforts

December 08, 2016 — Aaron C. Schlesinger & Gregory R. Begg – Peckar & Abramson, P.C.
As an update to our prior alert, on November 16, 2016, a federal judge in Texas issued a permanent injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) “persuader rule” – a preliminary injunction had been granted this past June. In rendering the permanent injunction, the court adopted the reasoning of its prior June 27, 2016 decision that granted a nationwide preliminary injunction on the rule. In the earlier decision, the court held that a temporary injunction was appropriate because the parties challenging the rule were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim […]. Reprinted courtesy of Aaron C. Schlesinger, Peckar & Abramson, P.C. and Gregory R. Begg, Peckar & Abramson, P.C. Mr. Schlesinger may be contacted at aschlesinger@pecklaw.com Mr. Begg may be contacted at gbegg@pecklaw.com Read the court decision
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Palm Beach Billionaires’ Fix for Sinking Megamansions: Build Bigger

June 14, 2021 — Prashant Gopal & Amanda L. Gordon - Bloomberg
Thomas Peterffy became one of the world’s richest people by mastering risk on Wall Street. Building his Mediterranean-style mansion seven years ago on a vulnerable stretch of Florida’s Palm Beach Island was a matter of seeing the odds clearly once again. The consequences of climate change will play out over decades, and Peterffy is 76 years old. “I don’t have a care about it at all,” he said over lunch at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, just down the street from his home. The founder of Interactive Brokers Group has a fortune of more than $21 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. “If something needs to be done to save it,” he added, “it’s not going to be my problem.” The town of Palm Beach is busy adapting to the risks of a warming planet, even if there appear to be fewer worriers among the buyers and speculative builders on the island. Some of the lowest-lying properties in the U.S. are seeing the highest-flying prices. The real estate website Zillow estimates the value of Peterffy’s home at $52 million. This year a new nine-bedroom mansion with toes-in-the-sand views sold to financier Scott Shleifer for a record-breaking price in excess of $122 million. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Prashant Gopal & Amanda L. Gordon, Bloomberg

Sewage Flowing in London’s River Thames Draws Green Bond Demand

April 04, 2022 — Ronan Martin - Bloomberg
The green bond market just got one of its biggest challenges yet -- cleaning up London’s River Thames. A sale of the notes aims to help to fund upgrades to the city’s Victorian-era sewers, as population growth in London heaps increasing pressure on them. Designed to serve about 4 million people, the sewers instead handle waste from more than double that number, leading to multiple sewage overflows every year. Bazalgette Finance Plc sold 300 million pounds ($400 million) of green bonds Thursday to fund construction of a 25-kilometer tunnel to prevent millions of tonnes of sewage overflowing into the river. The 12-year notes were priced at 130 basis points above U.K. gilts, drawing investor orders of more than four times the amount on offer, according to a person with knowledge of the sale, who asked not to be named. The bond proceeds will be given to Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd for the ongoing construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which is expected to be completed in 2023, according to the Tideway website. The 66 meter-deep tunnel is more than seven meters wide and will cost an estimated 4.2 billion pounds ($5.6 billion) at completion, according to an investor presentation seen by Bloomberg News. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Ronan Martin, Bloomberg

Gehry-Designed Project Seen Bringing NYC Vibe to L.A.

April 28, 2014 — Nadja Brandt and John Gittelsohn – Bloomberg
Billionaire Stephen Ross’s Related Cos. new project in the sleepy end of downtown Los Angeles is designed to invigorate Grand Avenue the way its Time Warner Center helped energize New York’s Columbus Circle. “The notion of bringing together this diverse mix of uses, and allowing for a lot of public spaces and public events, has proven to be very powerful in the right locations and with the right planning.” said William Witte, president of Related’s California division. The New York-based firm formed a joint venture with Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment Group LLC to restart plans for a $650 million-to-$700 million complex with entertainment, shopping, apartments, condominiums and a luxury hotel, Witte said. After going back and forth with local officials for most of the past year, Related won approval in January for the Frank Gehry-designed project from Los Angeles County supervisors. Ms. Brandt may be contacted at nbrandt@bloomberg.net; Mr. Gittelsohn may be contacted at johngitt@bloomberg.net Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Nadja Brandt and John Gittelsohn, Bloomberg

Federal District Court Finds Coverage Barred Because of Lack of Allegations of Damage During the Policy Period and Because of Late Notice

December 29, 2020 — Robert Dennison - Traub Lieberman
In American Bankers Ins. Co. of Florida v. National Fire Ins. Co. of Hartford, 2020 WL 5630017 (Sept. 21, 2020), the Northern District of California of the United States District Court had occasion to consider whether allegations in an underlying complaint triggered a duty to defend and a late notice defense to coverage. The underlying actions were a suit against the City of Walnut Creek for damages from flooding allegedly caused by the City’s failure to develop and maintain its storm drains.The City settled the cases then sued its liability insurers who issued its coverage in the period 1968 to 1986 for indemnification of the amounts spent to defend and settle the cases.The published decision involved three Travelers’ policies issued to the City between 1968 and 1976, as to which Travelers sought summary judgment as to the lack of coverage in its policies. The district court first found that the definition of an “occurrence” in the policies, in one policy “an event or a continuous or repeated exposure to conditions which causes injury to person or damage to property during the policy period” and in the other two “an accident, including injurious exposure to conditions, which results during the period this policy is in effect, in bodily injury or property damage,” fell within the rule of Montrose Chemical Corp. v. Admiral Ins. Co. (1995) 10 Cal.4th 645, that injury or damage during the policy period must occur in order for the policy to be triggered.The court agreed with Travelers that while there were allegations of flooding for many years, the only claims/allegations of property damage were for the period 2000 and later.Therefore the property damage coverage in the policies was never triggered. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Robert Dennison, Traub Lieberman
Mr. Dennison may be contacted at rdennison@tlsslaw.com

SEATTLE WASHINGTON BUILDING EXPERT DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES