Key Lease Work Letter Issues When the Landlord Is Doing the Work
Law Brief®: David Pfeffer and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Legal Implications of Infrastructure Collapses
Contractual Notice Requirements: Do You Really Need Them?
Construction Defects: Lessons Learned
California Court of Appeal Opens Doors for Construction Defect Claims Outside of the Right to Repair Act
Two recent Florida appellate decisions, Bandklayder Development, LLC v. Sabga, and Vuletic Group, LLC v. Malkin, have clarified and reinforced a critical principle in Florida construction law: damages for construction defect...more
Often times, subrogation practitioners take the “kitchen sink” approach when pursuing claims: they name all potentially liable parties under all available legal theories and whittle down from there. With construction defect...more
In Morningside Ministries v. Koontz McCombs Construction, Ltd., No. 08:23-00332-cv, 2025 Tex. App. Lexis 3584 (Morningside), the Court of Appeals of Texas (Court of Appeals) considered whether the plaintiff’s construction...more
GRSM’s Construction Group is pleased to publish the latest issue of our Construction Law Update, a quarterly take on trends of interest to design professionals, contractors, and developers throughout the country....more
Owners can trigger an insurance policy without formally alleging a tort claim if the contractor's defective work could support a tort claim. The Oregon decision may allow property owners to assert only a breach of...more
In a long-awaited decision that helps contractors obtain coverage for construction defects, the Oregon Supreme Court in Twigg v. Admiral Ins. Co. 371 Or. 308 (2025) ruled that coverage under a commercial general liability...more
Under the Massachusetts statute of repose, tort claims involving improvements to real estate generally must be initiated within six years of the improvement’s opening to use. So, for example, if a worker suffers a jobsite...more
Businesses and homeowners in Oregon often assume their insurance will cover a contractor’s faulty work. That assumption was put to the test in Twigg v. Admiral Insurance Co., 373 Or. 475 (2025), an Oregon Supreme Court...more
Babin Builders and Development Inc. v. Quinones, Fla. 1st DCA, No. 1D2022-4103, February 12, 2025 - For construction defect litigation, many times we are called into action to defend a subcontractor who has been included as a...more
“Ensuing loss” provisions have long been the subject of nuanced arguments in insurance litigation. The provisions, which sometimes afford coverage for a “covered loss” stemming from an expressly excluded peril, serve as...more
Must damages be based on the cost of repair at the time of the breach? What is the time of breach? A recent Florida appellate case might have the answer to these questions. Bandklayder Development, LLC v. Sabga introduces key...more
In Bob Robison Commercial Flooring Inc. v. RLI Insurance Company (2025 WL 852889 (8th Cir. 2025), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit determined that an ensuing loss provision of a builder’s risk...more
In the recent decision of Veolia Water Tech., Inc. v. Antero Treatment LLC, 2024 COA 126 (Colo. App. 2024), the Colorado Court of Appeals addressed the “murky” application of the economic loss rule to the intentional tort of...more
If you ask owners, general contractors, or subcontractors how long the warranty lasts that they received or gave on a construction project, they will often tell you that they have a “one year warranty.” However, if the...more
The recent Florida appellate case of Bandklayder Development, LLC v. Sabga provides an important lesson regarding damages for construction defects – that damages for construction defects must be proven based on costs of...more
The legal concept of “privity of contract” is a common law principle which provides that only parties directly involved in a contract can enforce its terms or be held liable for its obligations. This means that third parties...more
Construction law cases can involve a broad variety of issues, including breach of contract claims, construction delays, structural deficiencies/construction defect claims, environmental issues, and regulatory claims, among...more
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals recently reversed, in part, and affirmed, in part, a lower court decision regarding dismissal of contractual indemnity and implied indemnity claims. WW Consultants was the design...more
In New Jersey, the “economic-loss doctrine” bars tort claims when the plaintiff’s only damages are economic in nature because, when parties enter into a contractual relationship, a contractual remedy flows from contract, not...more
Often times, both contract and tort claims co-exist in a subrogation matter and the line between the two can be blurred. This is especially true in the context of damages resulting from new home construction defect claims....more
Skanska USA Building, Inc. v. J.D. Long Masonry, Inc., No. 1:16-cv-00933, 2019 BL 336852, (D. Md. Sept. 9, 2019) - On September 9, 2019, a Maryland federal court awarded Skanska USA Building, Inc. (“Skanska”) compensatory...more
Pennsylvania law suggests construction defects generally are not considered an "occurrence" under most CGL insurance policies because defects are not true accidents, e.g., a fortuitous event. However, an exception generally...more
In its broadest sense, the "economic loss rule" prohibits recovery in tort for purely economic loss incurred under contract law. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary online defines tort as "a wrongful act other than breach of...more
In Kmart Corp. v. Herzog Roofing, Inc., 2018 Wisc. App. Lexis 842, the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin considered whether the economic loss doctrine barred the plaintiff’s negligence claims against the defendant roofer for...more
McMillin Albany LLC v. Superior Court, No. S229762, 2018 Cal. LEXIS 211 (Jan. 18, 2018) - Several homeowners (“Plaintiffs”) brought suit against developer/general contractor McMillin Albany LLC (“McMillin”) for alleged...more