Cambridge Massachusetts Building Expert Directory

The Texas Storm – Guidance for Contractors

March 08, 2021 — Curtis W. Martin & Paulo Flores - Peckar & Abramson, P.C.
The Texas snow and ice storm of February 2021 will long be remembered. It has affected everyone across the State, and its impacts continue to be felt a week later. This Alert provides the construction industry with guidance and recommendations for navigating commercial risk resulting from the storm. The potential impacts to your projects may be wide reaching. Consequences on a project site can include damage to the site, delays to work from the storm or from government orders, or simply the lack of help from trades who are dealing with serious personal catastrophes. Offsite impacts can cover a much broader scope of issues, including supply production issues or transportation interruptions. So, what can contractors facing such impacts do to avoid losses, mitigate the impacts, and prepare for what’s to come? Reprinted courtesy of Curtis W. Martin, Peckar & Abramson, P.C. and Paulo Flores, Peckar & Abramson, P.C. Mr. Martin may be contacted at cmartin@pecklaw.com Mr. Flores may be contacted at PFlores@Pecklaw.com Read the court decision
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California Contractors: Amended Section 7141.5 Provides Important License Renewal Safety Net

July 25, 2021 — Amy L. Pierce, Mark A. Oertel, John Lubitz & Adam B. Wiens - Lewis Brisbois
Under California’s Contractors State License Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 7000 et seq., contractors’ licenses expire two years from the last day of the month in which the license was issued or two years from the date on which the renewed license last expired. The Contractors State License Board (CSLB) sends licensees a renewal application 60 to 90 days in advance of the date the license is set to expire. Even with various controls in place, mistakes happen and a renewal application filing deadline can be missed. During the August 5-6, 2019 Executive, Licensing, and Legislative Committee Meetings, the CSLB discussed proposed amendments to Section 7141.5 to reduce both the burden on it to review applications for retroactive renewal of a license that had not been timely submitted and to provide contractors with some relief from the high burden to establish “the failure to renew was due to circumstances beyond the control of the licensee.” Not long after, the CSLB’s Board of Directors gave staff approval to seek an author for the bill and, on September 29, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 1474 into law, which includes the CSLB’s proposed amendments to Section 7141.5, effective January 1, 2021. Reprinted courtesy of Amy L. Pierce, Lewis Brisbois, Mark A. Oertel, Lewis Brisbois, John Lubitz, Lewis Brisbois and Adam B. Wiens, Lewis Brisbois Ms. Pierce may be contacted at Amy.Pierce@lewisbrisbois.com Mr. Oertel may be contacted at Mark.Oertel@lewisbrisbois.com Mr. Lubitz may be contacted at John.Lubitz@lewisbrisbois.com Mr. Wiens may be contacted at Adam.Wiens@lewisbrisbois.com Read the court decision
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Defining Catastrophic Injury Claims

December 16, 2019 — Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP
How do we define circumstances and injuries that go beyond a typical claim and severely impact a person’s life? How do we characterize the types of claims where an individual’s enjoyment of life is affected in an extraordinary manner? Typically, attorneys refer to these types of cases as “catastrophic injury” claims. These are the type of personal injury claims where the health of an individual has been so seriously impacted that their life has been irreparably altered. Defining these claims legally is somewhat murky and case law has done little to provide attorneys with a specific definition of the term. However, a recent Workers Compensation Appeals Board ruling attempted to list factors in order to establish a catastrophic injury claim. These include:

An intensity and seriousness of treatment received for an injury;
The ultimate outcome when a person’s physical injury is permanent and stationary;
Whether the severity of the physical injury impacts the person’s ability to perform daily activities;
Whether the physical injury is closely analogous to one of the injuries specified in various statutes, including loss of a limb, paralysis, severe burns, or a severe head injury; and
If the physical injury is incurable or progressive. Wilson v. State of California CAL Fire (5/10/19) 2019 Cal.Wrk.Comp. LEXIS 29.

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Reprinted courtesy of Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP

Hawaii Federal District Court Rejects Bad Faith Claim

November 30, 2016 — Tred R. Eyerly – Insurance Law Hawaii
The federal district court for the district of Hawaii rejected the insured's argument that the insurer acted in bad faith because the insured had to contribute to a settlement of the underlying case. Hanover Ins. Co. v. Anova Food, LLC, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146114 (D. Haw. Oct. 21, 2016). After a prior round of briefing, the court determined that Hanover had a duty to defend, but rejected Anova's claim for pre-tender fees. 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

Court Finds that Subcontractor Lacks Standing to Appeal Summary Judgment Order Simply Because Subcontractor “Might” Lose at Trial Due to Order

May 03, 2021 — Garret Murai - California Construction Law Blog
Cases sometimes take unanticipated twists and turns. Atlas Construction Supply, Inc. v. Swinerton Builders, Case No. D076426 (January 26,2021), involving a tragic construction accident, a motion for summary judgment, a motion for good faith settlement, and a stipulated dismissal, is one of those cases. The Accident Swinerton Builders was the general contractor on a residential construction project in San Diego, California. Swinerton contracted with J.R. Construction, Inc. to perform concrete work and with Brewer Crane & Rigging, Inc. to perform crane work on the project. J.R. Construction in turn rented a concrete column formwork approximately 10 feet tall and weighing 300 to 400 pounds from Atlas Construction Supply, Inc. One day on the construction project, Marcus Develasco, Sr. and another co-worker, employees of J.R. Construction, climbed to the top of the formwork to adjust its size. The formwork, which had been positioned on the site by Brewer, was upright but unsupported by braces. When the co-worker stepped off the formwork, Develasco’s weight caused the unsecured formwork to topple over, killing Develasco in the process. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Garret Murai, Nomos LLP
Mr. Murai may be contacted at gmurai@nomosllp.com

New Case Alert: Oregon Supreme Court Prohibits Insurer’s Attempt to Relitigate Insured’s Liability

November 17, 2016 — Austin D. Moody – Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C. Blog
In a big win for policyholders, the Oregon Supreme Court recently ruled that that insurance companies are not allowed to relitigate the nature of damages awarded against their insureds during an underlying trial. In a coverage dispute stemming from a contractor’s faulty work on a condominium development, the insurer argued that at least a portion of the damages awarded represented the cost of repairing the contractor’s own work product. Coverage for such damages would be explicitly excluded by the policy. However, the Oregon Supreme Court found that the jury had been instructed that it could not award damages for the contractor’s own faulty workmanship. The court declined to give the insurer a chance to attempt to reclassify the nature of these damages. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Austin D. Moody, Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C.
Mr. Moody may be contacted at adm@sdvlaw.com

Be Sure to Dot All of the “I’s” and Cross the “T’s” in Virginia

August 02, 2017 — Christopher G. Hill - Construction Law Musings
As a construction company from outside of Virginia that wants to work here in the Commonwealth, there are numerous “hoops” that you need to jump through to be able to perform work and most importantly get paid. Among these are obtaining a Virginia contractors license, find a registered agent here in Virginia, hopefully find a local construction lawyer to help with your contracts, and (the subject of this post), register with the Virginia State Corporation Commission for the authority to do business in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Aside from it being a requirement of state law, the real world consequence of failing to register to do business is that, while you could file a lawsuit to enforce a claim (such as a mechanic’s lien), failure to register could cost you the ability to enforce or obtain any judgment on that lien. In other words, you could go through the costly litigation process, “win” and then be barred from any recovery simply because you did not follow this step. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Christopher G. Hill, The Law Office of Christopher G. Hill
Mr. Hill may be contacted at chrisghill@constructionlawva.com

Construction Defect Litigation at San Diego’s Alicante Condominiums?

March 25, 2011 — Alicante HOA Website

According to recent posts in the Alicante HOA website, construction experts and legal counsel have been retained. The HOA board has been informed that testing of a variety of the building’s components are underway or will begin in the near future.

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