Fairfield Connecticut Building Expert Directory

Angela Cooner Named "Top Lawyer" by Phoenix Magazine in Inaugural Publication

October 10, 2022 — Angela L. Cooner - Lewis Brisbois
Phoenix, Ariz. (September 7, 2022) – Phoenix Partner Angela L. Cooner was recently recognized for her work in Commercial Litigation by Phoenix Magazine in its inaugural list of Top Lawyers. Ms. Cooner was named a Top Lawyer after Phoenix Magazine partnered with research firm Data Joe to collect and tally online survey results from local practicing attorneys. The survey asks respondents to provide the names of up to three attorneys they deem the best in 39 legal specialties. After the votes are tallied and the nominees are confirmed to be members of Valley-based firms and in good standing, the top 10-20% of vote-getters in each category are named to the Top Lawyers list. Ms. Cooner is a member of Lewis Brisbois’ Construction and General Liability Practices. For more than two decades, she has managed an array of matters, including construction litigation, complex commercial litigation, professional liability cases, product liability issues, premises liability cases, and real estate litigation. Earlier this year, she was appointed vice-chair of the State Bar of Arizona’s inaugural Board of Legal Specialization Construction Defect Law Advisory Commission. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Angela L. Cooner, Lewis Brisbois
Ms. Cooner may be contacted at Angela.Cooner@lewisbrisbois.com

Limitation on Coverage for Payment of Damages Creates Ambiguity

April 03, 2013 — Tred Eyerly
Unable to discern the meaning of a provision stating that payment of damages would be made "through a trial but not any appeal", the court found an ambiguity.Parker v. Am. Family Ins. Co., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9085 (D. Ore. Jan. 23, 2013). The homeowners sued the general contractor for defective construction of their home. In November 2008, the homeowners reached a settlement through mediation with the general contractor. The general contractor's claims under its policies with American Family and Mid-Continent were assigned to the homeowners. The homeowners then sued both insurers for breach of insurance contract and/or equitable contribution. American Family moved for summary judgment, claiming the homeowners did not prove their damages claim against the general contractor "through a trial but not any appeal." Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tred Eyerly
Tred Eyerly can be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

OPINION: Stop Requiring Exhibit Lists!

September 18, 2023 — Todd Heffner - The Dispute Resolver
You are conducting the final hearing of a high-dollar construction arbitration. Opposing counsel hands you the next document that counsel plans to use in questioning the witness on the stand. You notice that the document is bates stamped but has no exhibit number. So, you quickly consult opposing counsel’s exhibit list and – gasp – you find that the document is not on the list. What do you do? Do you object? Assuming this is not your first construction arbitration hearing, you do not object. Why? Because your objection would be futile. Construction arbitrators simply do not exclude evidence on the basis that it does not appear on an exhibit list. (Evidence not produced in discovery or otherwise previously provided might be a different case.) In an informal poll of a dozen construction lawyers conducted by this author, not one reported evidence being excluded solely because it did not appear on an exhibit list. This remained true even when the applicable case management order purported to prohibit the introduction of evidence not on an exhibit list. Thus, to be used in an arbitration hearing, documents must appear on an exhibit list, unless they don’t, in which case you can use them anyway. So far, so pointless. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Todd Heffner, Troutman Pepper
Mr. Heffner may be contacted at todd.heffner@troutman.com

Florida Court of Appeals Holds Underlying Tort Case Must Resolve Before Third-Party Spoliation Action Can Be Litigated

December 04, 2018 — Lian Skaf - The Subrogation Strategist
In Amerisure Ins. Co. v. Rodriguez, 43 Fla. L. Weekly 2225 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App., Sept. 26, 2018), the Third District Court of Appeals of Florida addressed whether a third-party spoliation claim should be litigated and tried at the same time as the plaintiff’s underlying tort case. The court held that since the third-party spoliation claim did not accrue until the underlying claim was resolved, the spoliation cause of action could not proceed until the plaintiff resolved his underlying claim. The underlying matter in Amerisure involved a personal injury claim by plaintiff Lazaro Rodriguez. While working as an employee for BV Oil, Inc. (BV), Mr. Rodriguez was knocked from the top of a gasoline tanker he was fueling at a gasoline storage warehouse owned by Cosme Investment (Cosme). Mr. Rodriguez filed a personal injury lawsuit against Cosme. He also collected worker’s compensation benefits from Amerisure Insurance Company (Amerisure), BV’s worker’s compensation carrier, while his lawsuit was pending. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Lian Skaf, White & Williams LLP
Mr. Skaf may be contacted at skafl@whiteandwilliams.com

The Status of OSHA’s Impending Heat Stress Standard

May 30, 2022 — Stephen E. Irving - ConsensusDocs
There has been much talk in the last several months about OSHA’s intent to establish a national standard to prevent heat-related injury and illness. OSHA’s Region VI, covering the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico[1], has had a regional emphasis program dealing with the hazards of heat stress for more than two decades, and much of the talk about a new national standard suggests modeling some aspects of the standard after the Region VI program. Region VI’s long-standing program emphasizes water, rest, and shade; acclimatization; and responding to medical emergencies. In October 2021, OSHA issued its advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for Heat Injury and Prevention. The ANPRM rulemaking established a new Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Work Group within the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH.) Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Stephen E. Irving, Peckar & Abramson
Mr. Irving may be contacted at sirving@pecklaw.com

Insureds' Not Entitled to Recovery for Partial Collapse

February 04, 2025 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii
The Sixth Circuit affirmed the District Court's decision that the insureds could not recover for a partial collapse of a wall. Builders Mut. Ins. Co. v. GCC Construction, LLC, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 31518 (6th Cir. Dec. 11, 2024). Tahini Main Street bought a century-old building in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The building was constructed using what masons call three-wythe construction. This meant that the building's walls consisted of three brick layers - each layer was a "wythe" - that sit next to each other. When Tahini renovated the building, it hired GCC Construction, LLC (GCC). GCC planned to add windows which meant cutting a new opening into the building's western wall, boring straight through all three brick layers. When they finished slicing through the wall, some bricks fell from the opening's top. The middle rows fell into the new gap, leaving the two outside row with nothing in between. Accordingly, the wall lost its middle. 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

The Impact of Sopris Lodging v. Schofield Excavation on Timeliness of Colorado Construction Defect Claims

January 26, 2017 — Jean Meyer - Colorado Construction Litigation
On October 20, 2016, the Colorado Court of Appeals announced the Sopris Lodging, LLC v. Schofield Excavation, Inc.[1] decision. The Sopris decision significantly altered the potential pitfalls awaiting a general contractor in pursuit of third-party claims as well as potential defenses available for a subcontractor defending against third-party claims. By way of background, the Sopris construction defect case arose out of the following facts: TDC was the general contractor for the construction of a hotel owned by Sopris Lodging. On March 11, 2011, Sopris Lodging sent TDC a notice of claim regarding alleged construction defects. On May 24, 2013, Sopris Lodging filed a complaint in district court asserting construction defect claims against one of the subcontractors of the hotel, and against the general contractor’s principals, but not the general contractor. Contemporaneous with the filing of the suit, Sopris Lodging and TDC entered into an agreement to toll the statute of limitations on Sopris Lodging’s potential claims against TDC. In August 2013, Sopris Lodging joined the general contractor to the suit. A year later, in 2014, the general contractor joined a variety of subcontractors as third-party defendants. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Jean Meyer, Higgins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell, LLC
Mr. Jean may be contacted at meyer@hhmrlaw.com

Exculpatory Provisions in Business Contracts

May 30, 2018 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
An exculpatory provision in a contract is a provision that relieves one party from liability for damages. It shifts the risk of an issue entirely to the other party. Such a provision is generally drafted by the party preparing the contract that is looking to eliminate or disclaim liability associated with a particular risk, oftentimes a risk within their control. These provisions are also known as limitation of liability provisions because they do exactly that — limit liability as to a risk. For this reason, they can be useful provisions based on the context of certain risks, and are provisions that are included in business contracts (such as construction contracts). While such clauses are disfavored, they are enforceable if they are drafted clearly, unambiguously, and unequivocally. If they are unclear, ambiguous, or equivocal, they will construed against enforcement. See Obsessions In Time, Inc. v. Jewelry Exchange Venture, LLP, 43 Fla.L.Weekly D1033a (Fla. 3d DCA 2018) (finding exculpatory clause in lease ambiguous and, therefore, unenforceable as to lessor looking to benefit from the exculpatory clause). Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of David Adelstein, Florida Construction Legal Updates
Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at dadelstein@gmail.com

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