Seattle Washington Building Expert Directory

Expanded Virginia Court of Appeals Leads to Policyholder Relief

January 29, 2024 — Michael S. Levine & Olivia G. Bushman - Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog
Exercising its newly expanded jurisdiction that now permits Virginia’s intermediate appellate courts to hear insurance coverage disputes, the Court of Appeals recently reversed a lower court decision that allowed a two-year “Suits Against Us” provision to serve as a basis for an insurer’s refusal to reimburse repair and replacement costs incurred more than two years after the date of loss. Bowman II v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., Record No. 1256-22-3 (Nov. 21, 2023). CAV (unpublished opinion). In the proceeding below, the circuit court found no justiciable controversy and dismissed the complaint where repairs to the policyholder’s fire-damaged home continued more than two years after the date of the fire. The circuit court relied on a two-year limitation in the policy that governed the period within which the policyholder must bring suit against the insurer. Reprinted courtesy of Michael S. Levine, Hunton Andrews Kurth and Olivia G. Bushman, Hunton Andrews Kurth Mr. Levine may be contacted at mlevine@HuntonAK.com Ms. Bushman may be contacted at obushman@HuntonAK.com Read the court decision
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Insurer’s Confession Of Judgment Through Post-Lawsuit Payment

June 25, 2019 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
The recent opinion in the property insurance coverage dispute, Bryant v. Geovera Specialty Ins. Co., 44 Fla.L.Weekly D1232a (Fla. 4thDCA 2019), discusses the doctrine known as an insurer’s “confession of judgment.” In this case, an insured suffered water damage from a pipe leak. The insurer paid the insured $6,000 because of sublimits in the property insurance policy. There was a $5,000 sublimit for mold and a $1,000 sublimit for water leakage that occurs over a period of 14 days or more. The insured sued the insurer for covered water damage arguing that the sublimits did not apply. After the lawsuit was filed, an agreed order was entered that stayed the case pending an appraisal. The appraisal award did not apply the $1,000 sublimit to the water damage from the pipe leak and segregated out damage for mold. (The insurer already paid the mold sublimit). The insurer ended up paying the appraisal award for the water damage caused by the pipe leak after deducting its pre-lawsuit sublimit payment. The insurer paid the award and did NOT challenge the application of the $1,000 sublimit in court, although it could have since coverage issues are decided by courts. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of David Adelstein, Kirwin Norris, P.A.
Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at dma@kirwinnorris.com

Condo Developers Buy in Washington despite Construction Defect Litigation

October 22, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
Marc Stiles writing for Puget Sound Business Journal stated that “[t]he belief that contractors have been scared off by the legal liabilities that come with [condo] projects doesn't seem to hold water.” He interviewed Suzi Morris, of Lowe Enterprises, who plans on building a new condo tower in Seattle this November. Morris stated that they didn’t have any problems getting construction bids for the 24-story tower. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, “The development team is trying to head off construction defect claims by planning and documenting with photos their work.” Stiles did admit that an unnamed “source in Seattle who consults on condo projects knows of two large general contracting companies that won't bid on condo projects because of” potential construction defect litigation. Read the court decision
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ASCE Statement on Devastating Impacts of Hurricane Helene

October 07, 2024 — Marsia Geldert-Murphey, P.E., President - American Society of Civil Engineers
WASHINGTON, DC. – We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life across six states, in addition to the immeasurable damages caused by Hurricane Helene throughout the Southeast this past week. Hundreds of communities are without power. Citizens cannot move safely from one place to another. And in its wake, the storm has left many without drinking water and sewage services. As civil engineers, our first priority when we design and build the structures that connect us is the public's safety and well-being; we are heartbroken to see so many lives lost or upended by Hurricane Helene. As someone who has experienced losing everything in a catastrophic flood event, I have seen first-hand the need for making communities more resilient, and the consequences of failing to do so. Although hurricanes have consistently been a threat in the U.S., particularly in the Southeast, extreme weather events and 500-year floods are increasing in regularity and our aging infrastructure systems were not built to withstand storms of this magnitude. Total prevention of loss of life or property damage can never be guaranteed, but Helene is a reminder of the importance of widespread adoption of up-to-date, modern building codes and standards. We are thankful for the hard work of first responders, the military, and other organizations working around the clock to save lives and meet the immediate needs of people affected by this storm. As communities begin the long recovery process, civil engineers will be there to help communities rebuild the roads, bridges, dams, water systems, and other infrastructure damaged or destroyed by the storm. ABOUT THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 160,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America's oldest national engineering society. ASCE works to raise awareness of the need to maintain and modernize the nation's infrastructure using sustainable and resilient practices, advocates for increasing and optimizing investment in infrastructure, and improve engineering knowledge and competency. For more information, visit www.asce.org or www.infrastructurereportcard.org and follow us on Twitter, @ASCETweets and @ASCEGovRel. Read the court decision
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Nuclear Energy Gets a Much-Needed Boost

August 05, 2024 — The Editorial Board - Bloomberg
President Joe Biden, as you’ve no doubt heard, has had a rough few weeks. Yet on Tuesday, he signed a bill into law that could well prove transformative for America’s energy future. Here’s hoping — whatever happens in November’s election — that more progress lies ahead. Known as the Advance Act, the bill seeks to remedy some long-standing flaws in nuclear-energy regulation. To reach net zero, the world will need to roughly double its nuclear capacity by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency. Yet constructing new nuclear plants in the US is expensive, time-consuming and encumbered by red tape. Partly as a result, the industry has stagnated: The share of electricity generated by nuclear is projected to decline to about 12% by 2050, from about 18% today. The Advance Act should help reverse that trend. As a start, it makes useful reforms to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, allowing the agency to hire more staff, reduce licensing fees, speed application processing and ease the burden of environmental reviews. It also makes a small but consequential change to the commission’s mission, requiring it — after decades of focusing on potential threats — to also consider the vast public benefits of nuclear energy when making regulatory decisions. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of The Editorial Board, Bloomberg

Architect Sues School District

November 20, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
SFL+A Architects is suing the Marlboro County, South Carolina School District over $690,000 that the architect claims is owed to it by the school district. The firm did design work for the Blenheim Elementary Middle School, which opened in January. The architectural firm contends that the school district refused to pay for anything outside of basic services and failed to pay the full amount on those either. Read the court decision
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Appeals Court Overruled Insured as Additional Insured on Subcontractor’s Commercial General Liability Policy

April 02, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
Scott R. Murphy and Clifford J. Shapiro of Barnes & Thornburg LLP in the publication National Law Review analyzed the findings of the Mississippi case Carl E. Woodward, LLC v. Acceptance Indemnity Insurance: “the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overruled the district court’s determination that a general contractor was insured as an additional insured on its subcontractor’s commercial general liability (CGL) policy for claims arising out of the allegedly defective work performed by the subcontractor.” “This case underscores the fact that many standard policy forms do not include completed operations coverage for additional insureds,” Murphy and Shapiro declared. “Owners and contractors that desire to have such coverage therefore need to check their contracts to be make sure the contract language requires completed operations coverage for additional insureds, and they also need to obtain and review the actual additional insured endorsement contained in their subcontractors’ insurance policies before work commences to make sure that the required completed operations insurance coverage is provided.” Read the court decision
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Supreme Court of Washington State Upholds SFAA Position on Spearin Doctrine

September 13, 2021 — Peter Roth – The Surety & Fidelity Association of America
September 9, 2021 (WASHINGTON, DC) – The Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA) commends the decision of The Supreme Court of The State of Washington to reverse the lower court ruling in the case of Lake Hills Investments, LLC vs. Rushforth Construction Co. As argued by SFAA, the Supreme Court found the contractor should not be responsible for damage caused by the defective design provided by the owner even where the contractor was responsible for certain defective work. In addition, the contractor is not completely barred from asserting this defense if the defects were caused by a combination of deficient performance by the contractor and deficient design, and proportional liability should be determined. The SFAA, along with the National Electrical Contractors Association Puget Sound Chapter (NECA), Mechanical Contractors Association of Western Washington (MCAWW) and SMACNA-Western Washington (SMACNA), issued an Amici Curiae in support of Petitioner AP Rushforth Construction Co., Inc. d/b/a AP Rushforth, and Adolfson & Peterson, Inc.’s (collectively “AP”) Petition for Discretionary Review. In the brief they argued the Court should grant the Petition because the decision by the lower court is contrary to precedent of limiting a contractor’s liability when the owner’s defective plans and specifications caused the defective work, and upsets settled expectations of allocation of risk and liability between contractors, owners and architects (among others) on construction projects. This allocation of risk and the principle of limiting the contractor’s liability for defective work based on defective plans and specifications is long settled doctrine in Washington State and throughout the country, a doctrine based on the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision in U.S. vs. Spearin more than 100 years ago. The Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA) is a trade association of more than 425 insurance companies that write 98 percent of surety and fidelity bonds in the U.S. SFAA is licensed as a rating or advisory organization in all states and it has been designated by state insurance departments as a statistical agent for the reporting of fidelity and surety experience. www.surety.org Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Peter Roth, SFAA
Mr. Roth may be contacted at proth@surety.org

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