Cambridge Massachusetts Building Consultant Directory

Payne & Fears Recognized by Best Lawyers in 2025 Best Law Firms®

December 03, 2024 — Payne & Fears LLP
Payne & Fears LLP has been named to the 2025 Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” list. This recognition highlights firms that demonstrate professional excellence, receiving outstanding ratings from both clients and peers. Payne & Fears has been ranked in the following practice areas: Metropolitan Tier 1

Orange County

Commercial Litigation
Employment Law – Management
Insurance Law
Labor Law – Management
Litigation – Labor and Employment
Litigation – Real Estate

Metropolitan Tier 2

Las Vegas

Commercial Litigation

Metropolitan Tier 3

Orange County

Litigation – Intellectual Property

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Reprinted courtesy of Payne & Fears LLP

Word of the Day: “Contractor”

September 16, 2024 — Garret Murai - California Construction Law Blog
What’s in a word? When it comes to insurance policies, a word, can potentially mean millions of dollars. In California Specialty Insulation, Inc. v. Allied World Surplus Lines Insurance Company, 102 Cal.App.5th 1 (2024), an insured and its insurer battled it out over the word “contractor,” and whether an exclusion from coverage of bodily injury to any employee or temporary worker “of any contractor or subcontractor,” excluded a personal injury claim brought by an employee of a general contractor against a subcontractor. The California Specialty Contractor Case In 2017, Air Control Systems, Inc. (“Air Control”) was contracted to perform improvements at a building in Los Angeles, California. Air Control in turn subcontracted with California Specialty Insulation, Inc. (“CSI”) to install duct insulation on the project. During construction, an employee of Air Control was injured when he fell 16 to 20 feet from a ladder that was struck by a scissor lift driven by an employee of CSI. Approximately two years later the Air Control employee filed a personal injury lawsuit against CSI. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Garret Murai, Nomos LLP
Mr. Murai may be contacted at gmurai@nomosllp.com

When Cyber Crooks Steal Payments, Think Insurance Makes Up The Loss? Think Again.

November 18, 2024 — Richard Korman - Engineering News-Record
In Summer 2023, the payment system for a small office and warehouse project that Beck Properties was developing for itself in South St. Paul, Minn., seemed to be running smoothly. Emails were criss-crossing back and forth and paper checks were landing in mailboxes. Reprinted courtesy of Richard Korman, Engineering News-Record Mr. Korman may be contacted at kormanr@enr.com Read the full story...

Homeowner Survives Motion to Dismiss Depreciation Claims

September 23, 2024 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii
The insurer's motion to dismiss claims for improper claims handling when considering implementation of depreciation was denied. Morrison v. Indian Harbor Ins. Co, et al., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115664 (S. D. W. Va. July 1, 2024). Plaintiff's home suffered flood damage. The house was insured by Indian Harbor a surplus lines carrier that offered specialized and high risk property policies in West Virginia. Surplus lines policies were procured in West Virginia through a "surplus lines licensee." Here, Neptune Flood Inc. was the surplus lines licensee broker for Indian Harbor. Peninsula Insurance Bureau, Inc. was an administrator and loss adjuster involved in the claim. After the flood, Plaintiff notified defendants of the damage and immediately cleaned and repaired the house. Plaintiff asserted that Neptune was given notice of the loss and one of its agents made recommendations regarding the coverage available and conveyed the information to Peninsula and Indian Harbour. Plaintiff claimed that defendants misrepresented his policy coverage and made incorrect adjustments for depreciation based on Neptune's statements and recommendations. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert
Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

Providence Partner Monica R. Nelson Helps Union Carbide Secure Defense Verdict in 1st Rhode Island Asbestos Trial in Nearly 40 Years

December 31, 2024 — Lewis Brisbois Newsroom
Providence, R.I. (November 22, 2024) - On November 21, 2024, a Providence County jury returned a unanimous defense verdict for Union Carbide Corporation after a nine-day trial presided over by Associate Justice Richard A. Licht. Tim McGowan of Kelley Jasons McGowan Spinelli Hanna & Reber LLP, Eric Cook of Willcox Savage, and Monica R. Nelson of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP represented Union Carbide at trial. Elliott Davis of Shook Hardy & Bacon was Union Carbide’s appellate counsel. The plaintiffs’ lawyers, Vincent L. Greene IV, Nathan D. Finch, and Ashley Hornstein of Motley Rice LLC, represented the family of Mrs. Bonnie Bonito in the first asbestos matter to go to trial in Rhode Island in close to 40 years and requested nearly $25 million in compensatory damages for the death of Mrs. Bonito from her alleged exposure to Union Carbide’s asbestos, among many other asbestos-containing products, through the work clothes of her husband. The plaintiffs’ proffered theory of liability against Union Carbide Corporation is known as a “take-home” exposure claim. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Lewis Brisbois

Five Issues to Consider in Government Contracting (Or Any Contracting!)

September 02, 2024 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
The appeal of Appeals of – Konecranes Nuclear Equipment & Services, LLC, ASBCA 62797, 2024 WL 2698011 (May 7, 2024) raises interesting, but important, issues that should be considered. In this case, the government (in a supply contract) procured four portal cranes from the claimant. After an initial test of one of the cranes failed, the government refused to accept delivery even after the issue was addressed by the claimant. The government did not accept the manner in which the claimant addressed the issue and would only accept cranes if the claimant employed “an unnecessary alternative solution [that] caused further delay and increased [claimant’s] costs.” On appeal, it was determined the government’s decision to delay delivery based on its demand for the alternative solution was not justified, i.e., constituted a breach of contract. Below are five issues of consideration in government contracting, or, for that matter, any contracting. Issue #1- Patently Ambiguous Specifications The government argued that the specifications were patently ambiguous and because the claimant failed to inquire regarding the ambiguous specifications prior to performance, its interpretation of the ambiguous specifications should govern. The contractor countered that the specifications were unambiguous and it met the specifications. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of David Adelstein, Kirwin Norris, P.A.
Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at dma@kirwinnorris.com

$31.5M Settlement Reached in Contract Dispute between Judlau and the Illinois Tollway

September 16, 2024 — Annemarie Mannion - Engineering News-Record
The Illinois Tollway will pay nearly $31.5 million to New York-based Judlau Contracting and its trade contractors to resolve a lawsuit filed after the tollway, in April, terminated a $324-million contract with Judlau to rebuild the southbound lanes of the Interstate 290 and Interstate 88 interchange near Oak Brook, Ill. Reprinted courtesy of Annemarie Mannion, Engineering News-Record Ms. Mannion may be contacted at manniona@enr.com Read the full story...

Why Being Climate ‘Positive’ Is the Buzzy New Goal of Green Building

December 10, 2024 — Olivia Rudgard - Bloomberg
The three buildings, dotted around Norway, couldn’t look more different: a soaring timber-and-concrete obelisk in Porsgrunn; a squat, two-story Montessori school on the edge of a forest in Drøbak; and a concrete and glass wedge-shaped office in Trondheim, just a few hundred miles from the edge of the Arctic Circle. But they share a distinctive feature. Each has a roof perfectly tilted to squeeze out every possible drop of solar energy. They are called Powerhouses, and the initiative behind them claims they are all “energy positive”: The upfront energy “cost” of each building, and that of later demolition and disposal, is expected to be made back over the building’s lifetime. Powerhouses sometimes draw from the grid, especially in winter, but in the long Nordic summer days they give back many times over, overspilling excess solar energy into surrounding homes and businesses. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Olivia Rudgard, Bloomberg

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