Source: https://www.constructionrisk.com, September 2017 By: J. Kent Holland, Jr. Where a housing developer won a jury verdict for more than $9.5 million against a geotechnical engineer, the court applied the limitation of liability (LoL) clause in the geotech’s contract to cap the liability at $550,000. The developer attempted to avoid the LoL by arguing that […]

Source: https://www.constructionrisk.com, September 2017 By: J. Kent Holland, Jr. On a design-build project where an architect held the prime contract under DBIA forms 530 and 535, it was liable for overall site safety – including that which it had by subcontract expressly delegated to its construction subcontractor.   Because the language of the prime agreement imposed […]

Source: http://www.constructiondive.com, September 25, 2017 By: Kim Slowey The San Francisco Bay Area’s Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) has spent $3.5 million in legal fees since December to defend against claims that construction of its Transbay Transit Center contributed to the sinking and leaning of the 58-story Millennium Tower, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. […]

Source: http://www.businessinsurance.com, August 23, 2017 By: Judy Greenwald A federal appeals court has upheld Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance Co. Inc.’s denial of an insurance claim for a claims-made policy by a construction firm because the claim was not submitted within the policy period, even though it was submitted during the policy’s subsequent renewal period. […]

Source: http://www.times-standard.com, September 22, 2017 By: Hunter Cresswell It’s been a decades-long process but hazardous material mitigation work at the site of an old dry cleaners in Eureka’s Henderson Center is set to wrap up this fall. The work was necessitated by faulty hoses that started leaking hazardous cleaning chemicals into the soil beneath Norman’s […]

Source: http://www.foxnews.com, September 21, 2017 A Queens resident is dead and another was sickened after they both contracted Legionnaires’ disease within a two-month period, prompting New York City health officials to investigate their apartment building’s plumbing. The other residents of Park Towers, located on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, have been notified of the ongoing […]

Source: http://www.roanoke.com, September 29, 2017 By: Laurence Hammack More than three years after a tanker truck crash spilled toxic embalming fluid off a steep mountain road in Roanoke County, a trucking company has agreed to fix the damage that remains. Nichols Transport Inc. will replace about a half dozen contaminated private wells with water tanks […]

Source: http://www.njlawjournal.com, September 18, 2017 By: Martha N. Donovan The twin sister to environmental law is insurance. The two intertwined subject matters are akin to bread and butter; one is not as good without the other. An attorney who can handle one, but not the other, is fighting with one hand tied behind her back. […]

Source: http://boston.cbslocal.com, September 18, 2017 By: Ken MacLeod There are health concerns in a Wilmington neighborhood after a construction crew started tearing down a house filled with asbestos, without following the proper safety procedures. The issue was so bad; the Department of Environmental Protection was summoned to oversee things. When neighbors complained, it did bring […]

Source: http://billingsgazette.com, September 19, 2017 By: Matt Hudson A large multimillion-dollar excavation project will begin this fall to remove potentially toxic chemicals from part of a 580-acre federal Superfund site in Lockwood, which was used for a chemical repackaging company and a tanker-cleaning operation. The land sits to the north of Interstate 90. Authorities have […]

Source: http://abcnews.go.com, September 13, 2017 By: Bianca Seidman Private cleaning crews and public health workers are mobilized on the streets of San Diego, working to stop a hepatitis A outbreak that has claimed at least 16 lives so far. San Diego city and county officials said they are collaborating on solutions to the aggressive outbreak […]

Source: https://www.lexology.com, August 14, 2017 By: John J. Sylvanus, Barley Snyder Major construction is full of risk and reward. Owners, architects, engineers, contractors and subcontractors – all are bound to each other by a web of agreements, common schedules and desired outcomes. Everyone on a project is dependent on everyone else and subject to events beyond […]