Public contracts

The subcontractor community has waged war against pay-if-paid clauses for many years. But the war is not over, per two recent decisions, one from the Kentucky Supreme Court and one from a Connecticut trial court. The Kentucky Supreme Court held that… Read More

Just as clarity in contracting is a virtue, clarity with change orders is a must. Witness the dispute in an Ohio case, when the original and incorrect prevailing wage reference was revised via change order. The project was for renovation of housing u… Read More

A computer technician working onsite and testing HVAC components to ensure proper operation, to verify completion of a project, was performing “construction work” and thus entitled to be paid prevailing wages. So decided the Massachusetts Appeals… Read More

Where a sub was told that no additional time would be granted under any circumstances, the additional costs it incurred for acceleration and inefficiency could be recovered, even with a contract no-damages-for-delay clause. Also, the sub’s use of a… Read More

A construction project was undertaken by the New York Racing Authority (NYRA), a not-for-profit entity established in 2008. Near its inception, NYRA had received $5 million from its predecessor, without any designation or restriction on use of the fu… Read More

When the specifications call for temporary structures to be paid in a certain manner, it does not matter what the industry practice may be. That is the lesson learned by a structural steel supplier on a large bridge project. During the run-up to bidd… Read More

Some states recognize the doctrine expressed in English as “no time runs against the king” and in Latin as “nullum tempus occurrit regi.” The doctrine arises from time to time when a state agency seeks to recover against a private company on… Read More

In the ordinary course of public project procurement, bids of the competing companies become subject to public review after the bid opening. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court (an intermediate appellate court; see more below) recently held that the… Read More