One-Upmanship by Contractors In Prevailing Wage Decision Leads to a Bad Result for All . . . Perhaps

Fights between contractors can be a bit like Mad magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy” with each side trying to out outwit and one-up one another. The…

What California’s COVID-19 Reopening Means for the Construction Industry

This past Wednesday, Governor Newsom announced that California would reopen after being in lockdown for over a year due to COVID-19. Gone is Governor’s Stay at…

CSLB Begins Processing Applications for New B-2 License

As we wrote about in our 2021 Construction Law Update, one of the new laws to take effect on January 1, 2021 was the enactment…

1st District Joins 2nd District Court of Appeals and Holds that One-Year SOL Applies to Disgorgement Claims

We’re beginning to see a trend. This past year, the 2nd District Court of Appeals, in Eisenberg Village of the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the…

You Can Litigate a Dispute. Just Don’t LITIGATE a Dispute.

Litigation can get personal. But when you’re an attorney as well as the litigant, things can get both personal as well as nasty, and this can…

Court of Appeals Discusses the Difference Between “Claims-Made” and “Occurrence-Based” Insurance Policies

As most contractors know, scope, price and time are the “big” three in any construction contract. Nearly as important, however, are the insurance provisions. Patricularly, when…

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear: Liability of Asbestos Pipe Manufacturer Upheld Despite Exculpatory Testimony of Plaintiff

In the next case, Morgan v. J-M Manufacturing Company, Inc. 60 Cal.App.5th 1078 (2021), the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld a $7 million personal injury…

Design Immunity Does Not Shield Public Entity From Claim That it Failed to Warn of a Dangerous Condition

Readers of this blog are familiar with the concept of the design immunity defense. Codified at Government Code section 830.6, it provides in pertinent that a…

Biden Unveils $2.3 Trillion American Jobs Plan

This past week, President Biden unveiled his American Jobs Plan, a $2.3 trillion dollar plan to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure over 8 years. As we wrote…

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

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…

America’s Infrastructure Gets a C-. It’s an Improvement Though

Every four years the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues a report card assigning a letter grade to the nation’s infrastructure. ASCE issued their 2021…