Seattle Washington Building Expert Directory

Dave McLain included in the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America

March 06, 2023 — David M. McLain – Colorado Construction Litigation
Colleagues and friends: I am pleased to share with you that I have been recognized in the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America for my work in construction law. This honor comes as a surprise and is a testament to the dedication and hard work of my team at Higgins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell, LLC. As many of you know, my practice focuses on the defense of complex construction lawsuits on behalf of developers, general contractors, and other construction professionals. I have been fortunate enough to work with some of the largest home builders and general contractors in the state and country, regional and custom builders, and numerous insurance carriers over the years. Through these experiences, I have been able to gain valuable insights into the construction industry, and I am proud to be considered an expert in this field. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of David McLain, Higgins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell
Mr. McLain may be contacted at mclain@hhmrlaw.com

NY Project Produces America's First Utility Scale Wind Power

December 23, 2023 — Debra K. Rubin - Engineering News-Record
Despite financial gyrations in the U.S. offshore wind energy market that have caused project delays and cancellations over the past two years, America now has joined other world nations in having energy generated for the first time from a utility-scale facility. Reprinted courtesy of Debra K. Rubin, Engineering News-Record Ms. Rubin may be contacted at rubind@enr.com Read the full story... Read the court decision
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Home Buyers Lose as U.S. Bond Rally Skips Mortgage Rates

September 03, 2014 — Jody Shenn – Bloomberg
Potential home buyers watching this year’s plunge in 10-year Treasury yields can be forgiven for wondering why their borrowing costs aren’t falling at the same pace. The last time the benchmark Treasury rate fell as low as the 2.34 percent level reached last week, in June 2013, interest rates on typical mortgages were almost 0.2 percentage point less than they are now. There are a number of explanations: Yields on five-year Treasuries, which also help determine loan rates, have actually increased. And lenders that cut staff aren’t competing as aggressively by adjusting their pricing. No matter the cause, the effect is that a potential catalyst to get the faltering U.S. housing recovery back on track is failing to materialize. With home-loan rates stagnating at about 4.1 percent during the past three months, a renewed boom in refinancing also sits just out of reach. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Jody Shenn, Bloomberg
Ms. Shenn may be contacted at jshenn@bloomberg.net

Leaning San Francisco Tower Seen Sinking From Space

November 30, 2016 — The Associated Press (Jocelyn Gecker) – Bloomberg
San Francisco (AP) -- Engineers in San Francisco have tunneled underground to try and understand the sinking of the 58-story Millennium Tower. Now comes an analysis from space. The European Space Agency has released detailed data from satellite imagery that shows the skyscraper in San Francisco's financial district is continuing to sink at a steady rate — and perhaps faster than previously known. The luxury high-rise that opened its doors in 2009 has been dubbed the Leaning Tower of San Francisco. It has sunk about 16 inches into landfill and is tilting several inches to the northwest. A dispute over the building's construction in the seismically active city has spurred numerous lawsuits involving the developer, the city and owners of its multimillion dollar apartments. Engineers have estimated the building is sinking at a rate of about 1-inch per year. The Sentinel-1 twin satellites show almost double that rate based on data collected from April 2015 to September 2016. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Bloomberg

California Cracking down on Phony Qualifiers

July 23, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
Garret Murai in his California Construction Law Blog stated that “California’s Senate Bill 862, and amended Business and Professions Code 7068.1” has given the California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) “additional enforcement authority to crack down on phony qualifiers by allowing the CLSB to take disciplinary action against a qualifier and a licensee if the qualifier is not actively involved in the construction activities of the licensee’s business.” Murai explained that “[r]enting a qualifier means that you pay an individual who holds a California contractor’s license to act as the Responsible Managing Officer (RMO) or Responsible Managing Employee (RMO) of a construction company when they have no actual involvement in the day-to-day operations of the company.” Read the court decision
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Union Handbilling: When, Where, and Why it is Legal

November 06, 2018 — Wally Zimolong - Supplemental Conditions
A few days ago, IBEW Local 98 began began protesting a restaurant owned by professional football player Jahri Evans. The organizers are accusing Evans of violating local construction wage standards and are advertising their dispute with “handbills.” What are handbills? Walking down Fremont Street in Las Vegas is impossible without one or several characters putting a small business card with “questionable” adult entertainment advertisements in your hand. Some will slap papers to your chest, leaving you no choice but to grab the flyers. On a different level, this action occurs on a regular basis by union member. But instead of shady characters pushing questionable entertainment, it is union representatives pushing a dispute with a local employer over working conditions. However, in either case the practice is known as i as handbilling. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Wally Zimolong, Zimolong LLC
Mr. Zimolong may be contacted at wally@zimolonglaw.com

Insurer Has Duty to Defend Sub-Contractor

July 25, 2022 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii
Interpreting Connecticut law, the federal district court had that the insured sub-contractor was entitled to a defense. County Wide Mech. Servs. LLC v. Regent Ins. Co., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86726 (D. Conn. May 13, 2022). The underlying plaintiff, The Saybrook at Haddam, entered a contract with PAC Group to serve as general contractor for construction of an addition to The Saybrook's facility. PAC Group sub-contracted with County Wide Mechanical Services to install the HVAC system. The HVAC system was put into service on November 14, 2014. In October 2019, The Saybrook filed the underlying action against PAC group, County Wide, and others. The underlying complaint alleged that there had been at least seven "critical failures" of the HVAC system. As a result, The Seabrook had to replace multiple compressors and several circuit boards, valves, and other components. Further, the entire system had to be replaced. The underlying complaint alleged breach of contract against PAC Group and County Wide. In addition to the alleged breach of contract between The Saybrook and County Wide, the Saybrook also alleged it was a third-party beneficiary of PAC Group's contract with County Wide regarding installation of the HVAC system. PAC Group cross-claimed against County Wide, asserting one count of contractual indemnification and one count of breach of contract under the PAC Group's contract with County Wide. 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

Express Warranty Trumping Spearin’s Implied Warranty

March 06, 2022 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
Be mindful of that express warranty provision in your contract. It could result in an outcome that you did not consider or factor when submitting your proposal or agreeing to your contract amount. An express warranty could have the effect of eviscerating the argument that you performed your scope of work pursuant to the plans and specifications. In other words, the applicability of the Spearin doctrine could be rendered moot based on express warranty language in your contract that is fully within your control because you do not have to agree to that language. Under the Spearin doctrine:

[W]hen a ‘contractor is bound to build according to plans and specifications prepared by the owner, the contractor will not be responsible for the consequences of defects in the plans and specification.’ Spearin and its progeny set forth a default rule of fundamental fairness that when a general contractor requires a subcontractor to follow certain plans and specifications, the general contractor impliedly warrants that those plans and specifications are ‘free from design defects.’ Put simply, Spearin protects subcontractors from liability for simply following the general contractor’s direction and requirements. However, the implied warranty set forth in Spearin and its progeny may be overcome by express agreement. Where a general contractor and subcontractor expressly agree to allocate the risk of a defective product to the subcontractor, that express agreement must prevail over Spearin’s implied warranty. Lighting Retrofit International, LLC v. Consellation NewEnergy, Inc., 2022 WL 541156 (D. Md. 2022) (internal citations omitted).

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

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