Seattle Washington Building Consultant Directory

Extreme Rainfall Is Becoming More Frequent and Deadly

November 11, 2024 — Lou Del Bello - Bloomberg
Torrential rains that triggered floods and landslides have killed hundreds of people and displaced millions across parts of Africa, Europe, Asia and the US in recent months. The unprecedented deluges overwhelmed even communities accustomed to extreme weather and showed the limitations of the early-warning systems and emergency protocols established in many countries to avoid major loss of life. Climate scientists have warned that an accelerated water cycle is locked into the world’s climate system due to past and projected greenhouse gas emissions, and is now irreversible. The communities that tend to pay the highest price are often in poorer countries, where environments can be more fragile and governance more patchy, and there are fewer resources to bounce back after a disaster. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Lou Del Bello, Bloomberg

A Chicago Skyscraper Cements the Legacy of a Visionary Postmodern Architect

December 31, 2024 — Mark Byrnes - Bloomberg
A handsome and eclectic stretch of buildings along Michigan Avenue known as “Chicago’s Front Door” offers a view that reflects the city’s status as a destination for serious architecture. Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler’s Auditorium Building, where a young Frank Lloyd Wright designed interiors, is right there on Grant Park; so is Daniel Burnham’s Railway Exchange, where he drew up the 1909 Plan of Chicago. Now a glass-and-aluminum apartment tower anchors the southern end of this scene, filling in a rare gap within this landmarked streetwall and putting a bow on the career of another heroic figure in Chicago’s architectural history: Helmut Jahn. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Mark Byrnes, Bloomberg

California Supreme Court Finds Vertical Exhaustion Applies to First-Level Excess Policies

August 26, 2024 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii
Addressing issues left open in its seminal decision in Montrose, the California Supreme Court found that the language in the first-level excess policies meant that the insured could access the policies upon exhaustion of the directly underlying policies purchased for the same policy period. Truck Ins. Exchange v. Kaiser Cement & Gypsum Corp., 2024 Cal. LEXIS 3271 (Cal. June 17, 2024). From 1944 through the 1970's, Kaiser manufactured asbestos-containing products at numerous different facilities. By 2004, more than 24,000 claimants had filed product liability claims against Kaiser alleging that they had suffered bodily injury as a result of exposure to Kaiser's asbestos products. Kaiser tendered these claims to Truck, one of several primary insurers that had issued CGL policies to Kaiser. In 2001, Truck initiated this coverage action to determine its indemnity and defense obligations to Kaiser. Truck later amended its complaint to add a cause of action for contribution against several of Kaiser's excess insurers. The issue presently before the court was whether Truck was entitled to contribution from various coinsurers that issued first-level excess policies to Kaiser during the period in question. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert
Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

Connecticut Reverses Course for Construction Managers on School Projects

August 05, 2024 — Anand Gupta - Construction Law Zone Blog
On June 6, 2024, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Public Act 24-151 (H.B. 5524) (Bill 5524). Bill 5524 authorized and adjusted bonds of the state and provisions related to state and municipal tax administration, as well as addressed school building projects. Notably, Bill 5524 removed the ban on construction managers self-performing work on public school construction projects, effective July 1, 2024. Allowing construction managers to self-perform certain portions of the work, such as general trades, subject to the standard bidding requirements, is a common industry practice that, theoretically, reduces total project costs by reducing the amount of subcontracted work. However, proponents of banning self-performance argue that construction managers have too much information to bid fairly and competitively. Reprinted courtesy of Anand Gupta, Robinson+Cole Mr. Gupta may be contacted at agupta@rc.com Read the full story...

Rikus Locati Selected to 2024 Northern California Rising Stars!

August 05, 2024 — Dolores Montoya - Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP
Congratulations to BWB&O’s 2024 Northern California Super Lawyers Rising Stars! BWB&O is proud to announce that Walnut Creek Associate Rikus Locati has been selected to the 2024 Northern California Super Lawyers list as Rising Stars for his work in Personal Injury. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The objective of Super Lawyers’ patented multiphase selection process is to create a credible, comprehensive, and diverse listing of outstanding attorneys that can be used as a resource for attorneys and consumers searching for legal counsel. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Dolores Montoya, Bremer Whyte Brown & O'Meara LLP

‘The Ground Just Gave Out’: How a Storm’s Fury Ravaged Asheville

October 07, 2024 — Michael Smith, Devon Pendleton, Claire Ballentine & Michael Sasso - Bloomberg
Eric Becker was at his vacation home in western North Carolina, in a community bordering the Pisgah National Forest and Blue Ridge Parkway, when the rain began to pour. Becker, co-founder of the private wealth management firm Cresset, lives in Florida for most of the year. He had lived through a hurricane — but nothing like what he saw during Helene. “Mud was liquefying around tree bases. You could see the root systems,” said Becker, who first began visiting the Asheville area 20 years ago and was smitten by its natural scenery, excellent food and lively arts and music scene. “The ground just gave out.” Becker is part of a wave of affluent homebuyers who have flocked to the southern Appalachian region. Transplants from wealth managers and retirees to artists and young outdoors enthusiasts have helped create a real estate goldrush in cities including Asheville, where home prices have climbed 69% in the past five years. Reprinted courtesy of Michael Smith, Bloomberg, Devon Pendleton, Bloomberg, Claire Ballentine, Bloomberg and Michael Sasso, Bloomberg Read the full story...

Kahana Feld Partner Noelle Natoli Named President of Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles

October 07, 2024 — Linda Carter - Kahana Feld
LOS ANGELES – Sep. 16, 2024 – Kahana Feld is pleased to announce that partner Noelle Natoli was recently installed as the 2024-25 president of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (WLALA). The mission of WLALA is to promote the full participation in the legal profession of women lawyers and judges from diverse perspectives and backgrounds, maintain the integrity of our legal system by advocating principles of fairness and equality, and improve the status of women by supporting their exercise of equal rights. Natoli is a partner based in Kahana Feld’s Los Angeles office and focuses her civil trial practice on the defense of both insurers and insureds primarily in the areas of elder abuse, transportation defense, and general liability. Her clients include individuals, family-owned businesses, and national corporations. Natoli also chairs the Diversity & Inclusion Committee for the Trucking Industry Defense Association and serves as a board member of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Linda Carter, Kahana Feld
Ms. Carter may be contacted at lcarter@kahanafeld.com

A Win for Policyholders: Court Finds Flood Exclusion Inapplicable to Plumbing Leaks Caused by Hurricane Rainfall

October 21, 2024 — Kelly A. Johnson & Damian S. Barquin - Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C.
A recent decision by a federal court helps clear the path to coverage for property owners this hurricane season. The Court deemed one property policy’s flood exclusion inapplicable to bar coverage for water damage from backed-up drainage and overflow caused by excessive rainfall. The case, styled G.E.M.S. Partners LLC v. AmGUARD Ins. Co., — F.Supp. 3d —, No. CV 22-1664, 2024 WL 3568932 (D.N.J. July 29, 2024)), involved a familiar dispute between the insured and insurer following damage to covered property after a named storm’s heavy rainfall. Here, G.E.M.S. Partners LLC (“Insured”) obtained a commercial property policy from AmGUARD Insurance Company (“AmGUARD”) to cover three neighboring buildings in Union, New Jersey. In September 2021, intense rainfall from Hurricane Ida overwhelmed the local infrastructure and sewer system, leading to water leakage from plumbing fixtures at the insured property. To secure coverage under its AmGUARD policy, the Insured wisely relied on its “Water Back-Up and Sump Overflow Endorsement” (“Back-Up/Overflow Endorsement”). Under this endorsement, AmGUARD promised to “pay for ... damage ... caused by ... water ... which backs up through or overflows or is otherwise discharged from a sewer.”1 Indeed, a plumber that inspected the buildings following Hurricane Ida described the root cause of the water damage as a “back up” of “sewer ... water.”2 Reprinted courtesy of Kelly A. Johnson, Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C. and Damian S. Barquin, Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C. Ms. Johnson may be contacted at KJohnson@sdvlaw.com Mr. Barquin may be contacted at DBarquin@sdvlaw.com Read the full story...

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