Seattle Washington Building Expert Directory

Lawsuit Decries Environmental Assessment for Buffalo, NY, Expressway Cap Project

July 08, 2024 — Justin Rice - Engineering News-Record
The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the New York State Dept. of Transportation for redeveloping Buffalo’s Kensington Expressway with a “limited and flawed” environmental assessment. Reprinted courtesy of Justin Rice, Engineering News-Record Mr. Rice may be contacted at ricej@enr.com Read the full story... Read the court decision
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DoD Issues Guidance on Inflation Adjustments for Contractors

August 15, 2022 — Jennifer Harris & Abby Salinas - ConsensusDocs
The Department of Defense (“DoD”) recently issued a memorandum to contracting officers (“COs”) guiding the use of economic price adjustment (“EPA”) clauses to address inflation-related cost increases. The memorandum, entitled Guidance on Inflation and Economic Price Adjustments, comes as the year-over-year inflation rate rose to 8.6% in May, and contractors with fixed-price contracts seek ways to recover their rising costs. EPA clauses allow the parties to mitigate cost risks that present themselves as a result of circumstances beyond the contractor’s control, e.g., inflation and supply chain price fluctuations. Generally, an EPA clause will dictate that the Government bear the cost risk up to a mutually agreed-upon ceiling. EPA clauses apply to the cost portion of a contract, but do not normally apply to the profit. DFARS PGI 216.203-4. Memorandum: No CO Authority to Grant Contractual Relief Absent an EPA Clause The memorandum states that absent an existing EPA clause, COs do not have the authority to provide contractual relief for unanticipated inflation under a firm-fixed-price contract. Reprinted courtesy of Jennifer Harris, Peckar & Abramson, P.C. (ConsensusDocs) and Abby Salinas, Peckar & Abramson, P.C. (ConsensusDocs) Ms. Harris may be contacted at jharris@pecklaw.com Read the court decision
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Forget Backyard Pools, Build a Swimming Pond Instead

June 17, 2015 — Mark Ellwood – Bloomberg
No self-respecting Californian can let the summer pass without a dip in the backyard—pools are as much a part of culture as the 49ers, Schwarzenegger, and dire earthquake warnings. Now, though, there’s something unseemly about pooling so much water for the occasional swim—enough, in fact, to generate its own hashstag, #droughtshaming. There’s one surefire way to mitigate opprobrium: Build a natural swimming pond that’s specifically designed to minimize environmental impacts (or the cash premiums required to keep it up). Typical is one example in Sonoma County, where the the water seems to leak down from the rock perched on the ridge. Like a natural spring, it trickles and tumbles, pooling into water features as it falls; one feature is full of aquatic plants and flowers, while another is a swimming hole—clear, cool and inviting. It was built by Dave Whitney, chief executive officer of Eco Solutions, a pioneer in engineering such eco swimming ponds. These dipping pools use natural filtration instead of chlorine pellets to keep the water clean. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Mark Ellwood, Bloomberg

The Registered Agent Advantage

October 22, 2014 — Christopher G. Hill – Construction Law Musings
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, as in most states, all corporations, LLC’s or other corporate style entities are required to have a registered agent if they are to do business in the Commonwealth. The reasons for the requirement are many, but the main ones are taxation, service of process and communication from the Virginia State Corporation Commission (the “SCC”). Without such a registered agent, many rights, for example the right to prosecute a lawsuit, are not available to the unregistered entity. As a construction company that I hope is incorporated (if you aren’t you should do take this step), your registered agent can be an officer of the company, a company that meets the requirements of the SCC that allow it to act as a registered agent, or an attorney licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is this last category that you should carefully consider. Why do I think that a Virginia construction attorney is the best candidate for use as the registered agent of either a local or out of state contractor or subcontractor? As you might imagine from the title of this post, I’ll let you know. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Christopher G. Hill, Law Office of Christopher G. Hill, PC
Mr. Hill may be contacted at chrisghill@constructionlawva.com

Insurer's Daubert Challenge to Insured's Expert Partially Successful

November 03, 2016 — Tred R. Eyerly – Insurance Law Hawaii
The insurer was partially successful in challenging two of the insureds' experts in a bad faith case. Estate of Arroyo v. Infinity Indem. Ins. Co., 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115669 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 29, 2016). The Estate sought to qualify two experts, Lewis N. Jack and James P. Schratz. They were to opine on Infinity's handling of the Estate's insurance claims and the extent of damages warranted in the case. Jack was to testify on Infinity's duties to the insured, its investigation of the case, its reliance on Infinity's agents, and his belief that Infinity could have settled the case. Schratz's opinions mostly concerned Infinity's handling of its investigation. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Insurance Law Hawaii
Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

Techniques for Resolving Construction Disputes

September 16, 2019 — Jason Lambert - Construction Executive
With most construction projects involving dozens, if not hundreds, of companies and individuals, it is no surprise that conflicts arise that are not always able to be resolved on the jobsite. But these conflicts need not always reach the court room or cost thousands (or much more) to resolve. With some planning, contractors can build faster and less expensive dispute resolution options into their project so they can spend more time keeping the project moving and less time arguing over who is right. Even for modest-sized projects, a multi-tiered approached to dispute resolution can be helpful. As a first level of dispute resolution, consider requiring the relevant parties to attend informal or formal mediation. The benefits of even an informal mediation is that it can get stalemated parties to the table to talk again. Formal mediation adds the benefit of a neutral third-party who can help get talks moving or help antagonistic parties communicate. Further, mediation allows each side an opportunity to hear what the other side is looking for to resolve the dispute. Not only is this valuable in reaching a compromise, but it also gives each side an idea of what the other will bring to the table in any subsequent litigation. Finally, there are many ways to implement these procedures. General contractors can require pre-suit mediation with their subcontractors to resolve one-on-one disputes but should also consider requiring subcontractors to use pre-suit mediation to resolve disputes between subcontractors or between subcontractors and sub-subcontractors or material suppliers if the dispute threatens the progress at the project. Reprinted courtesy of Jason Lambert, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved. Read the court decision
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Don’t Sign a Contract that Doesn’t Address Covid-19 (Or Pandemics and Epidemics)

December 14, 2020 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
Do yourself a favor: Don’t sign a construction contract that doesn’t address COVID-19 or any pandemic or epidemic from this point forward! As the number of COVID-19 numbers rise, it would be reasonable to think this could have an impact on ongoing or future construction projects. For this reason, I want to revisit the subject of addressing COVID-19 (and any pandemic or epidemic) in your construction contract. The potential impact caused by COVID-19 could result from governmental regulations that impact construction of the project, shutdowns due to affected workers, owners’ decisions to suspend performance or adjust the way the project is being constructed, increased deep cleaning requirements, and increased measures associated with social distancing and re-sequencing of shifts. This all plays into the timeliness of performance and the productivity of manpower and equipment usage. When submitting a price, a lot of these considerations may not be factored in because doing so could lead to a price that will never get accepted. 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

Under Privette Doctrine, A Landowner Delegates All Responsibility For Workplace Safety to its Independent Contractor, and therefore Owes No Duty to Remedy or Adopt Measures to Protect Against Known Hazards

September 29, 2021 — Krsto Mijanovic, Jeffrey C. Schmid & John M. Wilkerson - Haight Brown & Bonesteel
In Gonzalez v. Mathis (2021 WL 3671594) (“Gonzalez”), the Supreme Court of California held that a landowner generally owes no duty to an independent contractor or its workers to remedy or adopt other measures to protect them against known hazards on the premises. The Court applied the Privette doctrine which establishes a presumption that a landowner generally delegates all responsibility for workplace safety to its independent contractor. (See generally Privette v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.4th 689; SeaBright Ins. Co. v. US Airways, Inc. (2011) 52 Cal.4th 590.) As such, the independent contractor is responsible for ensuring that the work can be performed safely despite a known hazard on the worksite, even where the contractor and its workers are unable to take any reasonable safety precautions to avoid or protect themselves from the known hazard. In Gonzalez, the landowner, Mathis, had hired an independent contractor, Gonzalez, to clean a skylight on his roof. To access the skylight, Gonzalez needed to utilize a narrow path between the edge of the roof and a parapet wall. While walking along this path, Gonzalez slipped and fell to the ground, sustaining serious injuries. Gonzalez alleged this accident was caused by several dangerous conditions on the roof, including a slippery surface, a lack of tie-off points to attach a safety harness, and a lack of a guardrail. Gonzalez was aware of all of these hazards prior to the accident. Reprinted courtesy of Krsto Mijanovic, Haight Brown & Bonesteel, Jeffrey C. Schmid, Haight Brown & Bonesteel and John M. Wilkerson, Haight Brown & Bonesteel Mr. Mijanovic may be contacted at kmijanovic@hbblaw.com Mr. Schmid may be contacted at jschmid@hbblaw.com Mr. Wilkerson may be contacted at jwilkerson@hbblaw.com Read the court decision
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