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Construction Law Blog - Rants and Raves

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Posted By: John P. Ahlers | Oct 09, 2009 | Topics: Construction Bidding, Construction News and Notes, Rants and Raves | View Article

Are Bidders Choosing to "Bomb" Project Pricing?

According to a recent ENR article, if all bidders have experienced estimators and costs of materials and efficiencies of bidders are the same, the variances in bids should be very small. Nevertheless, as of late, bid tabulations are showing significant variances, the explanation offered for these variances are mistakes in bids, missing amendments, takeoffs or subcontractors' quotes, or the company owners have decided to bid the work at or below cost to keep work coming in or generate cash flow. Qualified bidders are losing projects to bad business managers and poor bidders are ruining the markets for the competent bidders. "What the industry is facing today is complicated by having too many bidders either making mistakes in bides or poorly managing their businesses."

To read the article click here



Posted By: John P. Ahlers | Jan 14, 2009 | Topics: Rants and Raves | View Article

Rave for Obama - President elect backs another U.S. infra-structure project

President-elect Barack Obama during a speech on Thursday, January 8, called for the upgrading of the outdated U.S. electrical grid to a "smart grid." The smart grid will save the U.S. money, protect the power sources from blackout or attack and deliver clean, alternative forms of energy to all corners of the nation. The installation of the smart grid could cost up to $2 trillion dollars over the next 20 years. Infrastructure investments will do more to bolster future economic strength of the U.S. than tax refunds and rebates.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/06/news/economy/smart_grid/index.htm?postverson=2009010808



Posted By: Ryan Sternoff | Jan 13, 2009 | Topics: Liens/Bond Claims, Rants and Raves | View Article

Protecting Your Company's Financial Interests During Tough Times

In today's construction market, contractors face increasing challenges thanks to a slowdown in construction projects, problems in obtaining credit, fewer investors for projects, high construction costs, and slow payment or nonpayment by clients. All of this can impact a contractor's ability to obtain payment from project owners or upper tier contractors or make payment to subcontractors and suppliers. This article is intended to provide some guidance to contractors, and specifically general contractors operating in Washington State, on how to protect their interests in dealing with owners, subcontractors and suppliers in the present market.

Posted By: Brett Hill | Jan 12, 2009 | Topics: Rants and Raves | View Article

A&C Lawyer Larry Glosser appears on King 5 News

Ahlers & Cressman lawyer Larry Glosser recently appeared on King 5 news during the popular "Get Jesse" segment by anchor Jesse Jones. Mr. Glosser was recognized for his efforts in collecting a $200,000 judgment against a man who had swindled a number of people. Here is the video clip. Nice work Larry!

 



Posted By: John P. Ahlers | May 19, 2008 | Topics: Rants and Raves | View Article

Two important new rules governing contractors’ business ethics and conduct

As previously advised on April 2, 2008, the ethics of companies doing business with the government and their compliance with standard government contracting requirements has been daily fair in the media.  Two new and related federal acquisition regulation rules, one final and one proposed, are the most recent manifestations of this new focus on contractor ethics. 

The first is a recently published final rule requiring contractors to maintain a written code of business ethics and conduct a sound practice for any business (whether or not it sells to the government).  See A+C Blog Date April 2, 2008



Posted By: John P. Ahlers | May 13, 2008 | Topics: Rants and Raves | View Article

Department of Labor & Industries Decides Sound Transit Concrete Bridge Segments Cast In a Pre-Cast Yard are Subject to Prevailing Wages

Not unexpectedly, the Department of Labor & Industries ("DLI") prodded and cajoled by labor interests has determined that pre‑cast bridge segments, cast in a pre‑cast yard, are subject to prevailing wages.  DLI relied upon three factors in arriving at this conclusion:  (1) the bridge segments are "sophisticatedly" engineered and ultimately their use is "complex", (2) the installation task of tying the rebar required "sophisticated skill", and (3) that the tasks required to build the segments was "beyond a simple repetitive work". 



Posted By: John P. Ahlers | May 09, 2008 | Topics: Rants and Raves | View Article

Contractor Prevails on Differing Site Condition and Notice Issue in Colorado

Recently, the Court of Appeals upheld a differing site conditions clause, reversing a trial court that had concluded that the contractor was not entitled to recover for additional costs incurred due to an unforeseen subsurface conditions.  The trial court had ruled that the contractor had assumed the risk of the subsurface conditions by entering into a fixed price contract.

Posted By: John P. Ahlers | Mar 21, 2008 | Topics: Rants and Raves | View Article

A Contractor Faulty Estimate Should Not Trigger False Claims Act Violation

A threshold requirement under the False Claims Act is that a "false claim" exists, that is, that the claim be objectively "false."  Expressions of opinion, scientific judgments or statements as to conclusions about which reasonable minds may differ cannot be false as required by the False Claims Act.  United States Exrel Wang v. FMC Corp., 975 F.2d 1412, 1420-21 (9th Cir. 1992). 

Posted By: John Ahlers | Jan 09, 2008 | Topics: Rants and Raves | View Article

RAVES FOR IDAHO CONTRACTOR FIGHTING BACK ON ALLEGED DEFECTIVE CONSTRUCTION CLAIM

According to a lawsuit filed in Blaine County, Idaho, Tom Hanks ("Hanks") (the actor) and his wife Rita Wilson ("Wilson") hired Storey Construction, Inc. in 2001 to build a luxury home in Sun Valley, Idaho. The home was completed in 2002, and the movie star couple moved in. The contractor was not paid for the work it performed and filed a lien on the home, which culminated in an arbitration in 2003.

Posted By: John Ahlers | Jan 09, 2008 | Topics: Rants and Raves | View Article

American Safety v. City of Olympia

American Safety v. City of Olympia case (see Attached Article) increases the contractor's burden in recovering valid claims for changes (due to design revisions, differing site conditions or owner directed upgrades) . Not only must the contractor strictly comply with the notice requirements, if the contractor believes that the owner has relaxed the notice requirements, the Supreme Court has ruled the only way the contractor can be sure that the written notice requirements have been waived is to get that waiver in writing. The effects of this decision are going to be far reaching and severe, increasing the costs to owners to perform construction work by increasing the paperwork burden and the level of acrimony on a project site. Generally, claim notices are not well received by project owners and as contractors become more astute and document cost increases on the job with claim notices, the paper wars will be fought, to the disadvantage of both the contractor and the owner. Here are a number of practical implications that this decision will have on both contractors and owners: