Annual Review of Legal Decisions Casey A. Quillen, Esq. Ruebel - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Annual Review of Legal Decisions Casey A. Quillen, Esq. Ruebel - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

May 13, 2023 594 likes •815 views

In partnership with Annual Review of Legal Decisions Casey A. Quillen, Esq. Ruebel & Quillen, LLC 56 th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys Chicago, Illinois May 25 26, 2017 Construction Trends Cost of litigation will continue to

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Annual Review of Legal Decisions

Casey A. Quillen, Esq. Ruebel & Quillen, LLC 56th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Chicago, Illinois May 25 – 26, 2017

In partnership with

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

May 20, 2019

Construction Trends

  • Cost of litigation will continue to increase
  • Tighter Labor force
  • Trend toward mediation
  • Fewer worker’s compensation claims
  • More overtime disputes
  • More technology

– Construction management software for bidding, estimating, scheduling, change orders, etc. – Drones – BIM

  • Focus on Sustainability
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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

ARBITRATION

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

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May 20, 2019

Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela

  • No. 17-988 (April 24, 2019)
  • Arbitration is strictly a matter of consent.
  • “Like silence, ambiguity does not provide a

sufficient basis to conclude that parties to an arbitration agreement agreed to sacrifice the principle advantage of arbitration.”

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

CERTIFICATE OF MERIT

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Aka “Proof that you can Sue for Anything”

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Gignac & Assocs., LLP v. Hernandez 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 1284 (Tex. Ct. App. Feb. 15, 2018)

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Thompson v. Harrah’s Atlantic City Holding, Inc. 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53006 (U.S. Dist. Ct. N.J. March 29, 2018)

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

People ex rel. Hammer v. Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co. 2018 IL App (1st) 171613-U (Ill. App. 2018)

  • Court denies Owner’s delay claim against Contractor

upon finding that Architect acted with bias for Owner in delaying certification of substantial completion.

  • When an architect acts under a contract as the official

interpreter of its conditions or the judge of its performance, its decisions are entitled to a presumption of correctness or compelling judicial deference. – But that entitlement does not apply where the architect acted in bad faith, fraudulently, or arbitrarily, or if the architect made a gross mistake.

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

DUTY OF DESIGN PROFESSIONAL

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

DEFENSE AND INDEMNITY

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Mid-Continental Cas. Co. v. Delacruz Drywall Plastering & Stucco, Inc. 2019 WL 1093211 (11th Cir. Mar. 8, 2019)

  • Applying Florida law, Court affirmed that an insurer’s

duty to indemnify is not justiciable until the insured’s liability has been adjudicated in the underlying case.

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

INSURANCE

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Everest Nat’l Ins. Co. v. Gessner Engineering, LLC 325 F. Supp. 3d 760 (S.D. Tex. 2018)

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Stewart Engineering v. Cont’l Cas. Co. 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 31521 (4th Cir. Nov. 7, 2018)

  • Design firm’s two bridge projects which both collapsed are ruled as

single occurrence for insurance purposes.

  • Two pedestrian bridges collapse within 24 hours of each other.
  • Death of one construction worker; injuries to several others.

– Limits

  • $3M single claim limit.
  • $5M aggregate limit.

– Wrongful act defined as “error, omission, or other act that causes liability in the performance of professional services for other by you” – Related claims: “all claims arising out of a single wrongful act or multiple wrongful acts that are logically or causally connected by any common fact, situation, event, transaction, or decision.”

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Were you satisfied with your visit?

  • Yes
  • No
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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Aka “Best Existential Legal Argument”

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58th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Hampton Hall, LLC v. Chapman Coyle Chapman & Assocs. 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17795 (D. SC Feb. 2, 2018)

  • On appeal Hampton argued:

– Substantial completion never actually occurred because the construction violated applicable building codes, and/or – the Owner and Architect did not intend for the substantial completion of the project to be based on the certificate of substantial completion.

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Casey A. Quillen, Esq. RUEBEL & QUILLEN, LLC 56th Annual Meeting of Invited Attorneys

Chicago, Illinois May 25 – 26, 2017

In partnership with

Annual Review of Legal Decisions