construction contracts

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Construction contracts generally outline various scenarios in which a party can terminate the contract.  In one common scenario, a contractor is permitted to terminate its subcontractor “for cause” if the subcontractor provides deficient work or fails to meet the project schedule.  Contracts often describe this type of deficiency as a “failure or neglect to carry…

Summer associate, Luke Alba, contributed to this article.

Dispute resolution provisions providing for mediation as a prerequisite to arbitration are standard in AIA construction contracts. Parties may nonetheless mutually agree to eliminate or waive those provisions and proceed directly to arbitration.  Often, however, settlement discussions will ensue during the arbitration as costs begin to mount…

A frequent topic of dispute in litigation involving construction projects is whether a subcontractor is entitled to payment for work it performs outside its contractual scope of work—often referred to as “extra work” or “change order work”—without obtaining a signed written change order to perform the work.  The same issue often arises in the context…

Last week, New Jersey’s Appellate Division re-affirmed the principle that a court must strictly apply the terms of a construction contract when determining a dispute between contracting parties.  Where the contract terms speak directly to the issue in dispute, a court may not employ equitable considerations to determine the dispute even if the court believes…

The New Jersey Appellate Division recently ruled in Vollers Excavating and Construction, Inc. v. Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, Docket No. A-3844-10T1 (March 5, 2012), that a construction lender has no obligation to pay an unpaid subcontractor on a project when the general contractor files for bankruptcy protection.  In Vollers, Vollers was a subcontractor…