Fairfield Connecticut Building Expert Directory

Bert L. Howe & Associates to Join All-Star Panel at West Coast Casualty Seminar

March 26, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
Don MacGregor of Bert L. Howe & Associates, a consulting firm, will join fellow panelists Hon. Peter Lichtman (ret), Hon. Nancy Wieben Stock (ret), Peter S. Curry, Brian Kahn, Esq., and Paul R. Kiesel, Esq in a break-out discussion entitled “Working Smarter with Technology” at this year’s West Coast Casualty Construction Defect Seminar being held May 15th-16th at the world-famous Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. West Coast Casualty's Construction Defect Seminar is the largest seminar of its kind worldwide focusing on all of the elements of the prosecution, defense, coverage and technologies of construction defect claims and litigation from a national perspective. With offices in California, Nevada, Colorado, Florida and Texas (Houston & San Antonio), Bert L. Howe & Associates provides construction consulting and expert witness services to insurance professionals and lawyers specializing in construction defect litigation, construction risk analysis, and property claims arising from construction-related activities. Download an Invitation and Register... Read the court decision
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California Supreme Court Declines Request to Expand Exceptions to Privette Doctrine for Known Hazards

January 17, 2022 — Garret Murai - California Construction Law Blog
First things first. Happy New Year! Hope you had a good one. To start things off in the new year we’ve got an employment-related case for you – Gonzalez v. Mathis, 12 Cal.5th 29 (2021) – a California Supreme Court case involving the Privette Doctrine. For those not familiar with the Privette Doctrine, the Privette Doctrine is named after the case Privette v. Superior Court, 5 Cal.4th 689 (1993), which held that project owners and higher-tiered contractors are not liable for workplace injuries sustained by employees of lower-tiered contractors. Since then, courts have carved out a few exceptions to the Privette Doctrine including the “retained control exception” (also known as the Hooker exception – that’s the name of the case not the occupation of the injured worker) whereby a “hirer,” that is, the higher-tiered party who hired the lower-tiered party whose employee is injured, can be held liable if the hirer: (1) retains control over any part of the lower-tiered party’s work; and (2) negligently exercises that control in a manner that affirmatively contributes to the worker’s injury. Another exception is the “concealed hazard exception” (also known as the Kinsman exception) whereby a hirer can be held liable if: (1) the hirer knew, or should have known, of a concealed hazard on the property that the lower-tiered contractor did not know of and could not have reasonably discovered; and (2) the hirer railed to warn the lower-tiered contractor of that hazard. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Garret Murai, Nomos LLP
Mr. Murai may be contacted at gmurai@nomosllp.com

Judge Who Oversees Mass. Asbestos Docket Takes New Role As Chief Justice of Superior Court

January 02, 2024 — Lewis Brisbois Newsroom
Boston, Mass. (December 13, 2023) - Judge Michael Ricciuti, who presides over the Massachusetts state asbestos litigation docket, has been appointed to a new role as Chief Justice of Massachusetts Superior Court, effective December 22, 2023. The appointment is expected to result in the end of his tenure overseeing the state asbestos litigation. Judge Ricciuti was appointed by Governor Charlie Baker to the Superior Court in 2017. He has served in five counties and serves six-month rotations in the Business Litigation Session, in addition to his role overseeing the Massachusetts Asbestos Litigation docket. His current committee participation includes serving on the Superior Court Judicial Education Committee and the Supreme Judicial Court Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Evidence Law. He also serves as a judicial mentor. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Lewis Brisbois

California Supreme Court Raises the Bar on Dangerous Conditions on Public Property Claims

February 16, 2016 — Roger Hughes – California Construction Law Blog
Earlier we wrote about the affirmative defense of “design immunity” which can be used by public entities to shield themselves from personal injury claims dangerous conditions on public property. Under the design immunity doctrine a public entity can avoid liability for dangerous conditions on public property if it can show: 1.A causal relationship between the plan or design and the accident; 2.Discretionary approval of the plan or design prior to construction; and 3.Substantial evidence supporting the reasonableness of the plan or design. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Roger Hughes, Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP
Mr. Hughes may be contacted at rhughes@wendel.com

Homebuilder Confidence Takes a Beating

October 21, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
Homebuilder confidence dropped to fifty-five percent in October, the lowest percentage seen in the last four months. The score had been rising on the strength of renewed home sales. The current slump is attributed to increases in interest rates, which have made home purchases more expensive for prospective buyers, and the uncertainty of the budget struggle in Washington. John Stumpf, the chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo said that “home price appreciation remains strong and affordability remains excellent.” Mr. Strum has “guarded optimism” over the effects of the budget struggle. Read the court decision
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Clean Water Act Cases: Of Irrigation and Navigability

January 06, 2020 — Anthony B. Cavender - Gravel2Gavel
The federal courts have recently decided two significant Clean Water Act (CWA) cases: State of Georgia, et al. v. Wheeler, where the US District Court for the Southern District of Georgia held that the 2015 rulemaking proceeding of EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers redefining the term “Waters of the United States” in the CWA violated the Act as well as the Administrative Procedure Act; and the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, et al. v. Glaser, where the appeals court ruled that the lower court erroneously interpreted a CWA NPDES permitting exception involving agricultural return flows. An Absence of Navigability: State of Georgia, et al. v. Wheeler Decided on August 21, 2019, the district court, one of the few courts to grapple with the rule’s compliance with the CWA and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), held that the agencies’ redefinition of the terms “Interstate Waters,” “Tributaries” and “Adjacent Waters” violated the CWA by reading “navigability” out of the new definitions, or by failing to adhere to the Supreme Court’s rulings in the 2005 case of Rapanos v. United States, in particular Justice Kennedy’s concurrence regarding the application of the “significant nexus” in case-by-case adjudications as to whether a particular body of water was covered by the Act. Moreover, some provisions of the rule conflicted with the APA because they were not a logical outgrowth of the rules proposed by the agencies in 2014, and on which they solicited comments, and other determinations were not supported by a reasonable explanation. In addition, without a clear statement from Congress that it supported the rule’s effect of increasing the nature and extent of enhanced federal jurisdiction over waters subject to the CWA, the court was loathe to approve the rule. Accordingly, the rule was remanded to the agencies for additional review consistent with this decision. This decision is of particular importance as it may well be the first case to subject this new EPA rule—the linchpin of much of EPA’s regulation under the CWA—to extended review. (Other courts have only been asked to enjoin the rule, which involves a different type of review.) Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Anthony B. Cavender, Pillsbury
Mr. Cavender may be contacted at anthony.cavender@pillsburylaw.com

HOA Coalition Statement on Construction-Defects Transparency Legislation

May 12, 2016 — David M. McClain – Colorado Construction Litigation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bill Ray / 303-885-1881 DENVER—The Homeownership Opportunity Alliance—a broad coalition of business groups, builders, elected officials and affordable housing advocates—provided the following statements on reports that there will be no construction-defects transparency legislation this session: “We are disappointed that negotiations broke down today and that event was immediately turned into an effort to use the media to score political points. The Homeownership Opportunity Alliance has worked on this issue for three years, and we are committed to finding a resolution that will address Colorado’s housing needs, especially through the development of attainable condominiums,” said Tom Clark, Chief Executive Officer of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation. “We understand the importance of this issue for our state, for working families, for first-time homebuyers and for anyone along the housing spectrum who is struggling to find a home. That's why we will remain committed to working on this issue.” The Homeownership Opportunity Alliance’s diverse coalition includes more than 50 organizations from across Colorado. The coalition also includes individual mayors and 14 different communities that have passed local ordinances to address attainable condominium development. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of David M. McClain, Higgins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell, LLC
Mr. McClain may be contacted at mclain@hhmrlaw.com

Housing-Related Spending Makes Up Significant Portion of GDP

February 05, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
According to Molly Boesel on the Insight Blog, “housing-related spending makes up 17.3 percent of the GDP.” Boesel explained: “To calculate the portion of domestic spending that is related to housing, CoreLogic looks at three expenditures from the release: residential investment (the construction of new single- and multi-family houses), spending on housing services (rent, owner’s equivalent rent and utilities) and spending on furnishings and durable goods. Together, these expenditures made up 17.3 percent of total real GDP in the fourth quarter of 2013.” Read the court decision
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FAIRFIELD CONNECTICUT BUILDING EXPERT DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES