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Read Your Contract: It May Cost You Your Arbitration Award

By Sydney M. Warren & J. David Pugh

July 29, 2021

Imagine receiving an arbitration award in favor of your client. You move to confirm the award, and the award is vacated because the parties failed to mediate prior to arbitration. That is exactly what happened in Burke v. Roberson. In December 2020, the First Court of Appeals in Houston affirmed the vacatur of an arbitration award because a condition precedent to arbitration under the governing contract – i.e., mediation – was not satisfied or…

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Recovering Attorneys’ Fees for Breach of Contract

By Saira S. Siddiqui & Ryan T. Kinder

July 27, 2021

Texas lawyers finally have the ability to recover attorneys’ fees on behalf of their clients in all breach of contract matters, regardless of whether the other party is an individual, corporation, limited partnership, or limited liability company. The Texas Legislature has expanded the scope of Chapter 38 of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code, which currently only allows for recovery of attorneys’ fees from an individual or corporation, for actions arising out of breach…

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CICA Violated Where Sole-Source Award Duration Was Too Long

By Aron C. Beezley & Patrick R. Quigley

July 15, 2021

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC), in Sierra Nevada Corporation v. United States, recently held that a contracting agency’s justification of a sole-source contract award ran afoul of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) because the duration of the sole-source contract was longer than reasonably necessary. The COFC’s decision in this case is noteworthy because it provides clarity for both procuring agencies and would-be protesters about the limits of an agency’s ability to…

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You’ve Gotta Fight For Your Right To Get Paid: The Right To Stop Work

By Amy Elizabeth Garber & Eric A. Frechtel

July 13, 2021

A contractor is halfway through the (timely) completion of a project and the owner’s payment is late. Days, weeks go by, and now the contractor is incurring all the costs of the work without any compensation. It might be tempting to simply walk off the job, but bear in mind that legally speaking, that might constitute the “first breach,” even if the owner is late on payment. Enter: the stop work clause. The optimal stop…

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Lawyer’s Advocacy in Arbitrations: No. 10 of the Top 10 Horrible, Terrible, No Good Mistakes Lawyers Make: Not Looking for Ways to Make Your Arbitrator Happy at the End of a Hearing

By David K. Taylor

July 13, 2021

David K. Taylor, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, Nashville, TN dtaylor@bradley.com 615-252-2396 There’s a great argument that lawyer advocacy in an arbitration is more essential than at a trial in court. This is the last post of the 10 most horrible, terrible, no good, “bang your head against the door” mistakes that I have seen lawyers make in arbitrations, both when I served as counsel and as an arbitrator. Agreeing to arbitrate a dispute, whether in…

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Texas’s Major Lien Law Makeover: What You Need to Know

By Molly Maier & Ryan T. Kinder

July 12, 2021

Chapter 53 of the Texas Property Code just received major updates for the first time in years. On June 15, 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law HB 2237. This bill makes many notable changes to Texas’s lien laws. The construction industry and construction lawyers should take note of these changes to the complex and often confusing world of mechanic’s, contractor’s, and materialman’s liens in Texas. These changes to the Texas Property Code will take…

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Willful Misconduct Defined, How Broad Is That Exception to Your MSA?

By Timothy R. Cook & Gabriel Rincón

July 8, 2021

In Texas, most Master Service Agreements related to the oil and gas industry provide indemnities based on who or what was injured rather than who caused the injury. For example, the standard knock-for-knock indemnity will provide that an operator will defend and indemnify the contractor for injury to the operator’s employees even if the injury to the operator’s employees is wholly caused by the fault of the contractor. Similarly, in turn, the contractor will defend…

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Measuring the Long Arm of Texas Courts: When Is an Out-of-State Supplier Subject to Texas Jurisdiction?

By Justin T. Scott & J. David Pugh

July 1, 2021

Suppliers of construction products and materials frequently find that their products and materials are used in projects located in states where the supplier may not have an office, factory, or production facility. Some suppliers may believe that because they don’t have an office or factory in Texas, they cannot be sued in a Texas court. A recent opinion from the Texas Supreme Court provides suppliers whose products and materials are involved in a Texas project…

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AGC Announcement Raises Doubts on PPP Questionnaire: What Contractors Need to Know about Your PPP Forms

By Jonathan H. Ferry

June 30, 2021

The Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Necessity Questionnaire may soon be a thing of the past. Last fall the SBA began requiring lenders to provide certain questionnaires to PPP borrowers that received loans of $2 million or more. The questionnaire was meant to help assess the veracity of a borrower’s certification that “[c]urrent economic uncertainty make this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations of the Applicant.” The questionnaire was immediately…

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Enforcing Electronic Contracts in Texas When the Other Party Denies Signing

By Justin T. Scott & J. David Pugh

June 17, 2021

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As an ever-increasing amount of contract negotiation and execution is done online, new legal issues have arisen from such transactions. Consider the following scenario: You are a general/prime contractor. You have a subcontractor’s electronic signature on an arbitration agreement. When a dispute arises with the subcontractor, you raise the arbitration agreement and attempt to submit the dispute to arbitration. However, the subcontractor says that it never signed, reviewed, or has even seen the arbitration agreement…

BuildSmart

Developments of Interest to Design, Construction and Government Contract Professionals

Blog Authors

Read Your Contract: It May Cost You Your Arbitration Award

Recovering Attorneys’ Fees for Breach of Contract

CICA Violated Where Sole-Source Award Duration Was Too Long

You’ve Gotta Fight For Your Right To Get Paid: The Right To Stop Work

Lawyer’s Advocacy in Arbitrations: No. 10 of the Top 10 Horrible, Terrible, No Good Mistakes Lawyers Make: Not Looking for Ways to Make Your Arbitrator Happy at the End of a Hearing

Texas’s Major Lien Law Makeover: What You Need to Know

Willful Misconduct Defined, How Broad Is That Exception to Your MSA?

Measuring the Long Arm of Texas Courts: When Is an Out-of-State Supplier Subject to Texas Jurisdiction?

AGC Announcement Raises Doubts on PPP Questionnaire: What Contractors Need to Know about Your PPP Forms

Enforcing Electronic Contracts in Texas When the Other Party Denies Signing

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