Additional Insured Not Entitled to Coverage for Named Insured's Defective Work
September 02, 2024 —
Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law HawaiiThe Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit determined there was no duty to defend or to indemnify the additional insured for the named insured's defective work. St. Paul Guardian Ins. Co., et al. v. Walsh Construction Co., 99 F. 4th 1035 (7th Cir. 2024).
The City of Chicago contracted with Walsh Construction Company to manage the construction of a canopy and curtain wall system at O'Hare International Airport. Walsh entered into a contract with Carlo Steel Corporation, which in turn subcontracted with LB Steel, LLC to fabricate and install steel columns to support the wall and canopy. LB Steel listed Walsh as an additional insured in its commercial general liability policies. LB Steel's insurers were St. Paul, Travelers, and Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company.
Several years into the project, the City discovered cracks in the welds of the steel columns and sued Walsh. Walsh, in turn, sued LB Steel under its subcontract. Walsh also asked LB Steel's insurers to defend it in the City's lawsuit, but they refused to do so. Walsh eventually secured a judgment against LB Steel, but LB Steel declared bankruptcy. Walsh then sued LB Steel's insurers to recover the costs of defending against the City's lawsuit and indemnification for any resulting losses.
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Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak HastertMr. Eyerly may be contacted at
te@hawaiilawyer.com
How Your Disgruntled Client Can Turn Into Your Very Own Car Crash! (and How to Avoid It) (Law Tips)
January 21, 2019 —
Melissa Dewey Brumback - Construction Law in North CarolinaOver the summer, I was involved in a car crash. It was *not* my fault– heck, I wasn’t even driving but riding shotgun. But it wasn’t my husband’s fault either. A guy pulling out of a parking lot was watching the traffic coming up the road, but failed to see our car sitting in the same intersection waiting to turn into the same parking lot. He ran right into us.
It may not look like much, but the panels were so damaged it cost almost $9k in damages, over a month of car rental fees, and a LOT of aggravation on our part. The guy who hit us was very nice, apologized, and was concerned if we were injured. His insurance company ultimately paid for all of the damage. However– it wasn’t he who suddenly got a new part time job– that was me. I had to spend lots of time with police, insurance representatives, auto body mechanics, rental car places, you name it. If you’ve ever been in an accident, you know the headache involved. In fact, I have had 2 other accidents over the years (again, neither of which were my fault– I think I’m just a beacon for bad drivers?). One of those accidents was a 4 car accident– a driver hit my car, pushing it into the car ahead, which went into the car ahead of that. In that accident, my car was actually totaled. Fun times!
How is this relevant to your life as an architect or engineer? If you stay in the game (that is, the design field) long enough, chances are, you will, at some point, end up dealing with disgruntled clients. One of those clients may even file a lawsuit against you. Or, for that matter, you may end up getting sued by another party involved in your construction projects– one that you don’t even have a contract with.
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Melissa Dewey Brumback, Ragsdale Liggett PLLCMs. Brumback may be contacted at
mbrumback@rl-law.com
Perovskite: The Super Solar Cells
July 23, 2014 —
Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF“Embedding solar cells into buildings has always been more of a nice idea instead of an economical approach,” according to Gigaom, however they reported that a new kind of solar cell developed by a researcher at Oxford University might change things. Henry Snaith and his research team through experimentation discovered “perovskites,” which increase the amount of sunlight converted to electricity by 17 percent over other solar cells.
Solar cells currently used have, at times, proved inefficient. “Solar cells that won’t obstruct the view that a window offers historically have done poorly in converting much sunlight into electricity,” Gigaom reported. “Other types of solar cells have been too expensive to make. Plus, they won’t produce as much electricity when they line one side of a building rather than its rooftop, where they get sun for longer hours each day.”
Currently, Oxford PV, the perovskite start-up company, is pushing into commercializing its solar technology, and “is looking at opening an office in Silicon Valley.”
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Balancing Cybersecurity Threats in Smart Cities: Is the Potential Convenience of “Smart” Intersections Worth the Risk?
September 02, 2024 —
James P. Bobotek & Brian E. Finch - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law BlogThe term “smart cities” has become popular parlance for municipalities’ attempts to enhance delivery of urban services and infrastructure through information and communications technology. While they may conjure images of neon-lit high rises or streetscapes populated by sleek, hovering vehicles, a bit like the 1960s-era The Jetsons cartoon envisioned our high-tech future, the reality of smart cities has begun to emerge in more subtle, less glamourous forms. Cities tend to focus on wastewater monitoring, traffic control and energy distribution technologies in their efforts to become incrementally “smarter.”
Smart cities lean heavily on automation, internet connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT)—including smartphones, connected cars and a host of web-based appliances and utilities—to boost the delivery and quality of essential urban services and infrastructure like transit, sanitation, water, energy, emergency response and more. Successful smart cities need infrastructure that supports such connectivity, and they pull data from hundreds, or even thousands, of sensors that can be used to analyze and shepherd the direction of resources.
Reprinted courtesy of
James P. Bobotek, Pillsbury and
Brian E. Finch, Pillsbury
Mr. Bobotek may be contacted at james.bobotek@pillsburylaw.com
Mr. Finch may be contacted at brian.finch@pillsburylaw.com
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Licensing Mistakes That Can Continue to Haunt You
November 28, 2022 —
Alexa Stephenson & Rick Seely - Kahana FeldToday there are nearly 290,000 contractors licensed in California. This number continues to grow as California law requires businesses or individuals who alter any road or structure to be licensed contractors if the total cost of the project is $500 or more (including labor and materials). Complaints about improper and defective work performed by contractors are constantly filed with the California Contractors State License Board (“CSLB”) and any violations by those contractors could result in a license suspension. A contractor whose license is suspended by the CSLB or otherwise becomes unlicensed jeopardizes a contractor’s livelihood, compromises current insurance policies, and curtails an ability to obtain future insurance coverage. Moreover, being unlicensed could force a contractor to disgorge all money received on a project per California Business & Professions Code § 7031. What can contractors do to stay vigilant and avoid these scary outcomes? Stay tuned for a few suggestions.
1. Stay Qualified
Contractors must make sure the correct person and/or entity is holding the contractor’s license. Contractors can obtain licenses as a sole owner, partnership, corporation, joint venture, or limited liability company. For any form of the business entity, one individual must act as qualifier to meet the CLSB license requirements. This qualifying individual must have the knowledge, experience, and skills to manage the daily activities of a construction business (including field supervision) or be represented by someone else with at least four years of experience within the past ten years as an unsupervised journeyperson, foreperson, supervising employee, or contractor in the trade being applied for.
Reprinted courtesy of
Alexa Stephenson, Kahana Feld and
Rick Seely, Kahana Feld
Ms. Stephenson may be contacted at astephenson@kahanafeld.com
Mr. Seely may be contacted at rseely@kahanafeld.com
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California Supreme Court Rejects Third Exception to Privette Doctrine
July 03, 2022 —
Lewis BrisboisWalnut Creek, Calif. (May 25, 2022) - In Gonzalez v. Mathis (August 19, 2021) 12 Cal. 5th 29, the California Supreme Court considered whether to create a third exception to the Privette Doctrine specific to known hazards on a worksite, when a contractor cannot remedy the hazard by taking reasonable safety precautions to protect against it.
Privette Background
Under the Privette Doctrine, the hirer of an independent contractor generally cannot be liable for injuries sustained by the independent contractor or its employees while on the job. This is due to the “strong presumption” that the hirer delegates all responsibility for workplace safety to the independent contractor. See Privette v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal. 4th 689. Since the Privette ruling in 1993, the California Supreme Court has identified two circumstances in which the presumption may be overcome. First, the hirer may be liable when it retains control over any part of the independent contractor’s work and negligently exercises that retained control in a manner that affirmatively contributes to the injury. Hooker v. Dept. of Transportation (2002) 27 Cal. 4th 198, 213. Second, a landowner who hires an independent contractor may be liable if the landowner knew, or should have known, of a concealed hazard to the property that the contractor did not know of and could not have reasonably discovered, and the landowner failed to warn the contractor of the hazard. Kinsman v. Unocal Corp. (2005) 37 Cal. 4th 659, 664. Here, in the Gonzalez case, the court considered whether a landowner could be liable for known hazards on the property.
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Lewis Brisbois
New ConsensusDocs 242 Design Professional Change Order Form Helps Facilitate Compensation for Changes in Design Services
November 05, 2024 —
Brian Perlberg - ConsensusDocsConsensusDocs is publishing a new ConsensusDocs 242 Change in Services and Compensation, a change order for design services by a design professional. In the design and construction industry, one thing is certain – change. The work scope included in basic design services an architect or engineer provides occurs somewhat regularly. Previously, ConsensusDocs did not have a standard contract document for changing design professionals’ prices. As a result of user feedback, the ConsensusDocs Contract Content Advisory Council (CCAC) drafted this new architect/engineer change order. The CCAC unanimously approved the new contract document and publication is set for October 14, 2024. The document will be available for most ConsensusDocs subscribers. The full, owner, design-professional, and short-form subscription packages will include the document. A subscription package can be purchased through ConsensusDocs here.
The design professional change order helps owners of construction projects keep track of additional services their design professionals perform. The design professional must provide itemized labor breakdowns for each invoice. The new ConsensusDocs 242 has options for compensation to be actual hours at the billing rate or a lump sum. The new contract document form also has a table for the remaining project deliverables and their respective due dates.
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Brian Perlberg, ConsensusDocs CoalitionMr. Perlberg may be contacted at
bperlberg@ConsensusDocs.org
KB Homes Sues Condo Buyers over Alleged Cybersquatting and Hacking
October 22, 2013 —
CDJ STAFFWillowbrook, a condominium complex in Lakewood Ranch, Florida has had problems with water intrusion. Now the builder is having problems with some of the residents. National home builder KB Homes is alleging that a pair of Willowbrook home owners who created a web site about their problems have violated federal cybersquatting laws, as the web site names they have registered are close to that KB Homes. The suit alleges that Andrew Smith and Daniel Koehler hope to either get KB Homes to purchase the web site or to buy back their homes.
The lawsuit also alleges that three other individuals, William Crismon, Patrick McGettigan, and Armando Oyola-Delgado, conspired to intercept e-mails between KB Home and Dueall Construction. KB Homes claims that the three gained access to a WiFi hotspot used by Dueall.
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