Fairfield Connecticut Building Expert Directory

Request for Stay Denied in Dispute Over Coverage for Volcano Damage

August 10, 2020 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii
Although there were concurrent state and federal proceedings regarding the insureds' claims for damage caused by Kilauea Volcano, the federal district court refused to dismiss or stay the federal action. Aqulina v Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's Syndicate #2003, 2020 U.S. District Ct. LEXIS 101832 (D. Haw. June 10, 2020). Plaintiffs held homeowner's policies from Lloyd's that were brokered and underwritten by various defendants. Coverage from the May 2018 eruption of Kilauea Volcano was denied based upon an exclusion precluding coverage for lava-related damage. Plaintiffs sued Lloyds and various brokers in federal court, alleging that defendants had engaged in a deceptive scheme to defraud plaintiffs and deprive them of meaningful coverage. Lawsuits were also filed in state court, with plaintiffs arguing their losses were covered by their policies and that defendants wrongfully relied solely on the lava exclusion to deny claims. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert
Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

Contract, Breach of Contract, and Material Breach of Contract

July 05, 2023 — Wendy Rosenstein - Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC
At its most basic level, a contract is an agreement to make a trade. Parties to a contract agree to perform a specific action on the condition that the other side also performs a specific action. For instance, you and a Girl Scout could create a contract in which the Girl Scout agrees to deliver one box of cookies and you agree to pay her $6.00. In this case, both you and the Girl Scout have obligations under the contract. If the Girl Scout failed to send you the cookies, what do you do? You send her a note, in writing, telling her that you expect the cookies (or assurance that you will get the cookies) within a certain amount of time—this is notice and the opportunity to cure. Most contracts have a “notice and opportunity to cure” provision, which essentially says that one side must give the other side an opportunity to fix breaches before canceling the contract. Once a party receives a notice to cure, they must either rectify the problem or offer adequate assurances that they will fix the problem. Generally, the party has only a short period of time to address the breach. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Wendy Rosenstein, Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC

Anticipatory Repudiation of a Contract — The Prospective Breach

July 05, 2021 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
There are instances where a party can engage in the anticipatory repudiation of their obligations under a contract. In essence, this is basically a party prospectively breaching the contract by repudiating their obligations in the contract. A prospective breach of contract occurs where there is absolute repudiation by one of the parties prior to the time when his performance is due under the terms of the contract. Such a repudiation may be evidenced by words or voluntary acts but the refusal must be distinct, unequivocal, and absolute. Moreover, repudiation can be shown where one party makes additional demands not included in the initial agreement:

The law is clear that where one party to the contract arbitrarily demands performance not required by the contract and couples this demand with a refusal to further perform unless the demand is met, the party has anticipatorily repudiated the contract, which anticipatory repudiation relieves the non-breaching party of its duty to further perform and creates in it an immediate cause of action for breach of contract. 24 Hr Air Service, Inc. v. Hosanna Community Baptist Church, Inc., 46 Fla. L. Weekly, D1344a (Fla. 3d DCA 2021) (quotations and citations omitted).

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Reprinted courtesy of David Adelstein, Kirwin Norris, P.A.
Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at dma@kirwinnorris.com

Precast Standards' Work Under Way as Brittle Fracture Warnings Aired

December 22, 2019 — Nadine M. Post - Engineering News-Record
The American Concrete Institute is gearing up to develop ACI’s first code requirements specifically for precast concrete. The recent announcement of the initiative comes on the heels of an article in the September issue of ACI’s monthly magazine, Concrete International, that sounds the alarm about the potential for brittle failures of precast, prestressed-concrete double-T parking decks, with flanges reinforced with a non-code-compliant polymer-coated carbon-fiber grid product, called C-Grid. Reprinted courtesy of Nadine M. Post, Engineering News-Record Ms. Post may be contacted at postn@enr.com Read the full story... Read the court decision
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Eye on Housing Examines Costs of Green Features

July 09, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
The National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing reported that it costs more to build a green home, however, builder’s experience with green techniques reduces costs. According to McGraw Hill Construction survey data (as quoted by Eye on Housing), “the incremental cost for builders to construct green homes was 8% in 2013. For remodelers, green projects raised costs by 9% on average.” Furthermore, “McGraw Hill’s analysis found that the cost to build green varied to some degree by the amount of green construction undertaken.” Read the court decision
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Get Smarter About Electric Construction Equipment

October 24, 2022 — CONEXPO-CON/AGG
MILWAUKEE – Sustainability in the construction industry is being advanced by the public and private sectors. Governments are adopting more clean-air regulations at local and regional levels and companies are adopting sustainability policies and asking partners to help them meet their targets. Consequently, many manufacturers have already developed – or are in the process of developing – electric-powered construction equipment to meet increasing emissions regulations, provide efficiency improvements, and lower operating costs. All electric, electric/hydraulic, and battery-operated versions rival their diesel and gas counterparts in performance, notes Joel Honeyman, Vice President of Global Innovation at Bobcat. THE CHANGING INDUSTRY “People say electric machines are not going to perform as well as a diesel machine,” Honeyman observes. “That is simply not true. In many cases they can outperform them.” “Many people are so used to what they have and are afraid of new technology. Some companies have been running diesel- and gas-powered equipment for 40, 50 years. Hydraulics have been on equipment for 80 years. Adjusting to an electric-powered machine is quite a paradigm shift.” About the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) AEM is the North America-based international trade group representing off-road equipment manufacturers and suppliers with more than 1,000 companies and more than 200 product lines in the agriculture and construction-related industry sectors worldwide. The equipment manufacturing industry in the United States supports 2.8 million jobs and contributes roughly $288 billion to the economy every year. About CONEXPO-CON/AGG Held every three years, CONEXPO-CON/AGG is the must-attend event for construction industry professionals. The show features the latest equipment, products, services and technologies for the construction industry, as well as industry-leading education. The next CONEXPO-CON/AGG will be held March 14-18, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information on CONEXPO-CON/AGG, visit https://www.conexpoconagg.com. Learn more about excavator tech here. Read the court decision
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Florida Governor Signs COVID-19 Liability Shield

May 17, 2021 — Andrea de Oña - Lewis Brisbois
On March 29, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Florida Statute 768.38, granting significant protections to business entities, educational institutions, governmental entities, and religious institutions from claims related to COVID-19 if they made a good faith effort to follow guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The law is effective immediately and applies to actions filed after March 29, 2021. Recognizing the financial impact that the pandemic has had across the State of Florida, the new law aims to dissuade potential claimants from filing meritless claims for personal injuries, wrongful death, or other damages allegedly due to COVID-19 exposure in a few key ways. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Andrea de Oña, Lewis Brisbois
Ms. Oña may be contacted at Andrea.deOna@lewisbrisbois.com

See the Stories That Drew the Most Readers to ENR.com in 2023

January 16, 2024 — C.J. Schexnayder - Engineering News-Record
As construction's very busy and eventful year nears its close and the sector awaits many more ups and downs in 2024, ENR offers a look back at the Top 20 news stories that most caught readers' attention across a broad market spectrum—from the construction start of the long-awaited $16 billion New York-New Jersey rail tunnel rebuild and winners shortlisted for the first $7 billion in U.S. government funds for developing clean-energy hydrogen hubs to the still unfolding legal battle over Las Vegas Sphere project complexities and why a Texas jury awarded $860 million in a fatal Texas crane collapse verdict. Reprinted courtesy of C.J. Schexnayder, Engineering News-Record Mr. Schexnayder may be contacted at schexnayderc@enr.com Read the full story... Read the court decision
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FAIRFIELD CONNECTICUT BUILDING EXPERT DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES