Cambridge Massachusetts Building Expert Directory

Who is a “Contractor” as Used in “Unlicensed Contractor”?

June 08, 2020 — Taylor Orgeron - Autry, Hall & Cook, LLP
A recent Georgia Court of Appeals case established a rule concerning the effect of an unlicensed contractor failing to disclose that he is unlicensed. In Fleetwood v. Lucas,[1] the contractor was hired by the homeowners to perform renovations on two homes. One of the projects went over budget, and the homeowners failed to pay the remaining balances on both projects. Following their failure to pay, the contractor sued the homeowners for breach of contract, and the jury delivered a verdict in his favor. The homeowners appealed on the grounds that the contractor was barred from bringing suit because the contractor did not have a license to perform the work. Generally, if a contractor does not have a residential or general contractor’s license but performs work when a license is required, the contract is unenforceable. O.C.G.A. § 43-41-17(b). However, under O.C.G.A. § 43-41-17(g), a contractor may perform repair work without a license if the contractor discloses that he does not have a license, and the work does not affect the structural integrity of the project. In this case, the contractor failed to disclose that he did not have a license. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Taylor Orgeron, Autry, Hall & Cook, LLP
Mr. Orgeron may be contacted at orgeron@ahclaw.com

Construction Law Advisory: Mechanical Contractor Scores Victory in Prevailing Wage Dispute

September 03, 2014 — Steven M. Cvitanovic & Jessica M. Lassere Ryland - Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP
On August 27, 2014, the First District Court of Appeal weighed in on whether prevailing wages are required for public contracts in situations where work is performed in furtherance of the project but at a permanent offsite manufacturing facility that is not exclusively dedicated to the project. In Sheet Metal Workers' International Association, Local 401 v. John C. Duncan and Russ Will Mechanical, the project at issue was for a community college district where Russ Will was the HVAC subcontractor. The contract documents required contractors to pay prevailing wages but they did not limit where or how Russ Will would fabricate sheet metal required for the job. Russ Will used its existing fabrication facility to form the sheet metal. An employee of Russ Will filed a complaint with the DIR alleging he should have been paid prevailing wages for work related to the project. The worker fabricated sheet metal for the project but at Russ Will’s Hayward facility, not at the site. The DIR issued a coverage determination in which it concluded that Russ Will was required to pay prevailing wages for the offsite fabrication work associated with the project. The DIR's determination turned on whether Russ Will was exempt from the prevailing wage law as a material supplier. To qualify for the material supplier exemption, the employer must sell supplies to the general public and its fabrication or manufacturing facility must not be established for the particular public works contract or be located at the site of the public work. Following the DIR determination, Rush Will filed an administrative appeal. The department reversed its initial coverage determination, concluding that the offsite fabrication performed by Russ Will was not subject to the prevailing wage law. Reprinted courtesy of Steven M. Cvitanovic, Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP and Jessica M. Lassere Ryland, Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP Mr. Cvitanovic may be contacted at scvitanovic@hbblaw.com; Ms. Ryland may be contacted at jlassere@hbblaw.com Read the court decision
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Purse Tycoon Aims at Ultra-Rich With $85 Million Home

September 24, 2014 — John Gittelsohn and Nadja Brandt – Bloomberg
The eight-bedroom, 15-bath Beverly Hills, California, mansion has $5,600 toilets, a wall of caramel onyx and an 18-seat screening room with doors clad in Italian lizard skin. Asking price: $85 million. Rapper Jay Z has taken two tours of the hillside aerie with views that sweep from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. The estate was developed by Bruce Makowsky, who made his fortune selling handbags through department stores and the QVC television channel. “There was a void of homes for super-wealthy people, and that’s why I did it,” Makowsky said while sitting near a curved 54-foot (16-meter) glass wall that slides open to an infinity pool with iPad-controlled fountains. “I don’t think there’s anybody who’s served up $85 million-to-$100 million homes at this level for somebody to step into and buy.” Mr. Gittelsohn may be contacted at johngitt@bloomberg.net; Ms. Brandt may be contacted at nbrandt@bloomberg.net Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of John Gittelsohn and Nadja Brandt, Bloomberg

Congratulations to our 2019 Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Stars

July 30, 2019 — John Arbucci, Frances Brower, Lisa Hsiao, Kristian Moriarty & Michael Parme - Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP
Congratulations to attorneys John Arbucci, Frances Brower, Lisa Hsiao, Kristian Moriarty and Michael Parme who were selected to the 2019 Southern California Rising Stars list. Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor. Reprinted courtesy of Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP attorneys T. Giovanni “John” Arbucci, Frances Brower, Lisa Hsiao, Kristian Moriarty and Michael Parme Mr. Arbucci may be contacted at jarbucci@hbblaw.com Ms. Brower may be contacted at fma@hbblaw.com Ms. Lisa may be contacted at lhsiao@hbblaw.com Mr. Kristian may be contacted at kmoriarty@hbblaw.com Mr. Parme may be contacted at mparme@hbblaw.com Read the court decision
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Jury Convicts Ciminelli, State Official in Bid-Rig Case

August 14, 2018 — Engineering News-Record
After a four-week trial but with less than two days of deliberation, a Manhattan federal jury convicted Louis Ciminelli, former head of the now-defunct Buffalo, N.Y., contractor LPCiminielli, and Alain Kaloyeros, the fired ex-head of SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany, N.Y., of fraud and conspiracy in a scheme to rig bids on a $750-million upstate New York manufacturing project. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Engineering News-Record
ENR may be contacted at ENR.com@bnpmedia.com

Ninth Circuit: Speculative Injuries Do Not Confer Article III Standing

February 28, 2018 — Omar Parra and Lawrence S. Zucker II – Publications & Insights
As Dwight Schrute of hit NBC show “The Office” said, “identity theft is not a joke, Jim! Millions of families suffer every year!” In response, Congress has passed a variety of legislation over the years aimed at curbing identity theft. One such piece of legislation, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), as amended by corollary acts, prohibits the printing of more than the last 5 digits of the credit card number or the credit card number’s expiration date on any sales receipt. Anyone who “willfully fails to comply with [the requirements] is liable to that consumer” for statutory or actual damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and potential punitive damages. But is a statutory violation of the FCRA alone a sufficient injury to confer Article III standing? No, says the Ninth Circuit. Reprinted courtesy of Omar Parra, Haight, Brown & Bonesteel LLP and Lawrence S. Zucker II , Haight, Brown & Bonesteel LLP Mr. Parra may be contacted at oparra@hbblaw.com Mr. Zucker may be contacted at lzucker@hbblaw.com Read the court decision
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Condominiums and Homeowners Associations Remain Popular Housing Choices for U-S Homeowners

July 11, 2022 — Community Associations Institute
Falls Church, Va., July 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maintenance-free, safety, and cleanliness are top features that make community associations a popular choice and lifestyle for millions of Americans. According to results from the 2022 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey, the overwhelming majority (89%) of homeowners and condominium association residents rate their overall experience of living in a community association as "very good" or "good" (67%), or neutral (22%). At a time when community matters most, the majority (87%) said they knew their home was part of a community association and nearly half (45%) said the association made them more interested in the home. Eighty-seven percent of respondents believe that their governing board "absolutely" or "for the most part" serves the best interest of the community. More than half of residents (68%) believe that rules in their communities protect and enhance property values. Results from almost identical national surveys conducted in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 are strikingly consistent. The online survey of 1,507 homeowners and condominium association members nationwide with oversampling was conducted in in four states: Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Washington. About Community Associations Institute Since 1973, Community Associations Institute (CAI) has been the leading provider of resources and information for homeowners, volunteer board leaders, professional managers, and business professionals in the more than 355,000 homeowners associations, condominiums, and housing cooperatives in the United States and millions of communities worldwide. With more than 43,000 members, CAI works in partnership with 36 legislative action committees and 63 affiliated chapters within the U.S., Canada, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates as well as with housing leaders in several other countries, including Australia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. A global nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization, CAI is the foremost authority in community association management, governance, education, and advocacy. Our mission is to inspire professionalism, effective leadership, and responsible citizenship—ideals reflected in community associations that are preferred places to call home. Visit us at www.caionline.org, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook @CAISocial. Read the court decision
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You Cannot Always Contract Your Way Out of a Problem (The Case for Dispute Resolution in Mega and Large Complex Construction Projects)

September 16, 2024 — Lisa D. Love - The Dispute Resolver
Most experienced commercial transaction and construction attorneys strive to negotiate a concisely written and well-drafted contract that addresses all scenarios and issues that creative and highly contemplative professionals can conjure. Although contracts are extremely important in construction projects, “you can’t generally contract your way out of a problem,” states Michael Loulakis, a founder of Capital Project Strategies, LLC and a nationally recognized expert on project delivery systems in complex public sector design-build projects and public-private partnership programs. Loulakis adds, “the contract certainly matters. But particularly when the losses are big, litigators prosecuting the contractors often find effective ways to argue that facts and circumstances trump the contract.” However, “the difference between the best construction projects and the worst construction projects is not the written words of the contracts but how the parties have committed to engage collaboratively and with trust to complete the project,” notes Robynn Thaxton, an attorney and consultant with Thaxton Parkinson PLLC and Progressive Design-Build Consulting, LLC and one of the leading experts in construction law and alternative procurement on a national basis.[i] In large, complex construction projects, the need for parties to collaboratively resolve disputes is highlighted by the judicial acceptance of the “Doctrine of the Contextual Contract”[ii] to interpret construction contracts. “As construction’s increasing technological and managerial complexity came to be recognized, some common law courts began turning away from strict interpretation of language within the four corners of a contract and moving toward recognizing in the enforcement of contracts the construction industry’s own experience, customs, practices and implied conditions and duties and the factual context underlying the contract. Courts [began the journey] along the road from ‘text’ to ‘context.’”[iii] Thus, the precise wording of the contract has become less important and industry practices and other conditions provide insight for resolving disputes. Consequently, despite the specific language of any construction contract and the clear allocation of responsibilities and risks, early dispute evaluation and resolution are critical to a successful project. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Lisa D. Love, JAMS

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