Fairfield Connecticut Building Expert Directory

Contract, Breach of Contract, and Material Breach of Contract

July 05, 2023 — Wendy Rosenstein - Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC
At its most basic level, a contract is an agreement to make a trade. Parties to a contract agree to perform a specific action on the condition that the other side also performs a specific action. For instance, you and a Girl Scout could create a contract in which the Girl Scout agrees to deliver one box of cookies and you agree to pay her $6.00. In this case, both you and the Girl Scout have obligations under the contract. If the Girl Scout failed to send you the cookies, what do you do? You send her a note, in writing, telling her that you expect the cookies (or assurance that you will get the cookies) within a certain amount of time—this is notice and the opportunity to cure. Most contracts have a “notice and opportunity to cure” provision, which essentially says that one side must give the other side an opportunity to fix breaches before canceling the contract. Once a party receives a notice to cure, they must either rectify the problem or offer adequate assurances that they will fix the problem. Generally, the party has only a short period of time to address the breach. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Wendy Rosenstein, Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC

White and Williams Celebrates 125th Anniversary

March 04, 2024 — White and Williams LLP
White and Williams LLP, a global-reaching law firm headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, is celebrating its 125th Anniversary. Since its founding in 1899, the Firm has grown to two hundred lawyers with offices in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. “We are proud to celebrate our 125th anniversary. We are grateful to all of our clients for the trust that they place in our firm to handle their important litigation and transactional matters. The partnership we enjoy with our clients is special and a source of great pride to all of us at White and Williams. We are deeply committed to the success of our clients' goals and objectives,” stated Tim Davis, Managing Partner. “We look forward to celebrating this historic milestone with our clients, attorneys, staff and alumni throughout 2024,” added Davis. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of White and Williams LLP

WSHB Secures Victory in Construction Defect Case: Contractor Wins Bench Trial

October 01, 2024 — Wood Smith Henning & Berman
Wood Smith Henning & Berman is pleased to announce a significant victory in a bench trial led by trial attorney Thomas Fama. The case, which had been pending for nearly five years due to pandemic-related delays and unreasonable demands by the plaintiff, concluded with a resounding judgment in favor of the defendant. "The result of this trial is a testament to our team's unwavering tenacity and strategic focus throughout the entire process," stated WSHB partner Tom Fama, lead counsel in the case. "We kept our eye on the proverbial ball and diligently worked to expose the lack of evidence supporting the plaintiff's claims." The matter involved allegations of defective installation of a solar energy system, which the plaintiff claimed leaked during inclement weather. Fama and his team successfully demonstrated that the plaintiff's claims lacked substance, highlighting numerous pre-existing conditions on the roof that could have been responsible for the problem. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Wood Smith Henning & Berman

Allegations of Actual Property Damage Necessary to Invoke Duty to Defend

January 17, 2013 — Tred Eyerly, Insurance Law Hawaii

The Fifth Circuit held that under Texas law, conclusory allegations of property damage in the underlying complaint did not trigger the insurer's duty to defend. PPI Tech. Serv., L.P. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 24571 (5th Cir. Nov. 29, 2012).

Royal Production Company was the lessor and operator of three leases for oil exploration. Royal retained the insured, PPI, as its agent to assist in well-planning and oversee the drilling of wells on the leases.

A well was drilled on one of the three leased areas, but in resulted in a dry hole. It was later discovered that the well had been drilled on the wrong lease. Royal sued PPI for negligence, claiming that PPI caused the drilling rig to be towed to the wrong location, resulting in a dry hole and "property damage."

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Reprinted courtesy of Tred Eyerly
Tred Eyerly can be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

Hake Law Attorneys Join National Law Firm Wilson Elser

April 02, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
In a press release published on PRWEB, the national law firm Wilson Elser announced “that Bill Hake, founder of Bay Area–based Hake Law, and 15 members of his team, including attorneys, paralegals and staff, have joined the firm’s San Francisco office effective April 1.” Specifically, “Wilson Elser has added a total of four partners from Hake Law, including Bill Hake, Melissa Ippolito, Nicolas Martin and Lucy Hoff, and four associates, including Gardiner McKleroy, Jeremy Berla, Molly Friend and Whitney Barnecut, bringing the total attorney headcount in Wilson Elser’s San Francisco office to 40.” According to the release, “Hake Law was primarily a defense litigation firm focused on product liability, construction defects, D&O, catastrophic injury, toxic tort, white collar criminal, class action and complex litigation defense.” Wilson Elser is a “full-service and leading defense litigation law firm… with nearly 800 attorneys in 25 offices in the United States, one in London and through a network of affiliates in key regions globally.” Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of

Rio Olympic Infrastructure Costs of $2.3 Billion Are Set to Rise

January 31, 2014 — Tariq Panja and David Biller – Bloomberg
Brazilian authorities announced 5.6 billion reais ($2.3 billion) will be spent on infrastructure directly related to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and those costs will rise as projects are added. Yesterday’s announcement comes months behind schedule, and after pressure on public bodies to reveal exactly how much it will cost for Rio to be the first South American city to host the quadrennial showpiece. Delays and cost overruns to several projects related to this year’s soccer World Cup have sharpened the focus on the Olympics. “We are committed to being on schedule,” Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo said at a press conference in Rio to announce the spending plans. “It is the first time we have a consortium of three levels of government. It is in an effort to ensure the success and execution of all the commitments to deliver the Olympics in Rio in 2016.” Mr. Panja may be contacted at tpanja@bloomberg.net and Mr. Biller may be contacted at dbiller1@bloomberg.net. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tariq Panja and David Biller, Bloomberg

New Homes in Palo Alto to Be Electric-Car Ready

October 01, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
Electric cars are still fairly rare, but if you buy a new home in Palo Alto, you’ll have a place to charge it. The Palo Alto City Council has been enthusiastic about a measure that would require new homes to come wired for car chargers. The hope of the council is that the measure will make owning an electric car “convenient, easy and economical.” If added to the construction process, the wiring adds about $200 to the cost of the home, far less than the cost of adding it to an existing home. In addition to considering changes in the building code, the city also considered measures that would allow for the operation of public charging stations. Read the court decision
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Apprentices on Public Works Projects: Sometimes it’s Not What You Do But Who You Do the Work For That Counts

September 17, 2015 — Garret Murai – California Construction Law Blog
If you’re a public works contractor in California you’re familiar with prevailing wages. The Prevailing Wage Law, a Depression era law designed to encourage the hiring of local labor, sets a minimum wage that employers must pay to workers on public works projects. But because the Prevailing Wage Law sets a floor on wages it also limits the opportunity for lesser-skilled workers to gain experience. To address this, the Prevailing Wage Law permits contractors to pay apprentices a lower “apprentice wage” if the apprentice is enrolled in a state-approved apprenticeship program and requires contractors who hire workers in an “apprenticeable craft or trade” to hire a certain number of apprentices. But are particular apprentices required to be hired depending on the type of work being performed? In Henson v. C. Overaa & Company, Case No A139966 (June 29, 2015), the California Court of Appeals for the First District held that apprentices are required to be hired based on the craft or trade of the journeymen performing work not based on the type of work being performed. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Garret Murai, Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP
Mr. Murai may be contacted at gmurai@wendel.com

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