Philadelphia Construction Law Blog

It took a federal court to ask for guidance, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has finally formally declared as law a concept most construction lawyers already assumed to be the case: the Pennsylvania Contractor and Subcontractor Payment Act does not apply to public works projects.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals held in January that President Obama’s 2010 recess appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board was unconstitutional. In so doing, the Court concluded that valid recess appointments can only occur in intersession breaks of the Senate.

The issue of whether occurrence-based CGL policies provide coverage for property damage sustained as a result of faulty workmanship by contractors has been treated unevenly throughout the country. However, a recent decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals applying Pennsylvania law provided greater clarity on how occurrence-based policies are to be interpreted in the context of construction projects. The decision also left the door open to creative attorneys who may try to recover on such policies from a different angle though.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently affirmed 3 orders issued by the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the net effect of which was to uphold a finding that a defined completion date in a construction contract must be completed in a reasonable amount of time if change order work results in the original deadline being missed. The ruling confirmed an award of $422,923.83 in breach of contract damages and $539,521.15 in attorneys’ fees.