Philadelphia Construction Law Blog

Joseph Dougherty, 73, former head of Philadelphia’s largest ironworkers union, was sentenced Monday to 19 years and two months in federal prisonafter being convicted of overseeing a campaign of sabotage and intimidation of nonunion contractors including the 2012 torching of a Quaker Meetinghouse in Chestnut Hill. In addition, Dougherty will have to pay over $500,000 in restitution.

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.

Among the most famous buildings in the world, the White House is the residence and working space for the President of the United States. Despite its unique name, it was not always white and not always known as the White House. Do you know how the White House came to be known by that name?

In one of the most impactful decisions of the last decade for both the insurance and construction industries, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Kvaerner U.S., Inc. v. Commercial Union Insurance Co., that defective work was not an occurrence under a commercial general liability insurance policy when the underlying claims “triggering” coverage sound in contract. Courts in other jurisdictions, however, have been methodically swinging in the other direction. It may ultimately spell the end of the narrow reading the Kvaerner decision imposes on CGL policies in Pennsylvania.

A large project to build retail and commercial space on a 52 acre plot in Bethlehem has been slowed. At issue are two items.

The Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority recently filed a federal civil lawsuit against Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters, one of the two unions barred from working at the property, after failing to sign a new, more exhibitor-friendly customer satisfaction agreement. The lawsuit also names individual members of the Carpenters’ union.

OSHA CeritifcationsOSHA CeritifcationsAs part of the reaction to the tragic loss of life when a demolition contractor caused a building collapse at 22nd and Market Streets approximately 2 years ago, Philadelphia City Council passed a new city ordinance imposing licensure requirements for demolition contractors. That law, which was signed by Mayor Nutter, also imposed a new training requirement for some contractors to obtain and keep their contractor’s license.

Hunterdon County Superior Court Judge Paul Armstrong has invalidated Readington Township’s taking of the property that is Solberg-Hunterdon Airport and ordered the Township to pay attorney and expert fees, citing “manifest abuse of the power of eminent domain.”

On behalf of Kaplin Stewart Meloff Reiter & Stein, P.C. posted in General on Wednesday, April 22, 2015.

In Pennsylvania, the law currently provides an exception in the criminal code that prohibits the prosecution of the crimes of harassment, stalking, and threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction if those otherwise criminal acts are done as part of a labor dispute. Beginning last year, an effort was undertaken in the state legislature to close that loophole.