Jason Feld Awarded Volunteer of the Year by Claims & Litigation Management Alliance
April 15, 2024 —
Linda Carter - Kahana FeldOn April 3, 2024, Kahana Feld’s Co-Founding Partner, Jason Feld was honored by the Claims & Litigation Management Alliance (CLM) with the Inaugural Volunteer of the Year award.
The CEO of CLM, Ronna Ruppelt stated, “The new CLM Volunteer of the Year award honors dedicated members who passionately serve the CLM community. Jason’s service spans over a decade as both the President and Director of Events for the Orange County Chapter. Under his guidance, this chapter has flourished – not only educating and connecting the CLM community but rallying members to give back to the local community through service events in the process. Jason is also a frequent writer, speaker, and contributor for CLM events, and we are proud to honor him as our inaugural CLM Volunteer of the Year.”
Mr. Feld is a renowned nationwide construction claims leader who actively speaks at industry events. He serves as panel counsel for many prominent insurance carriers and provides personal counsel for multiple national and regional builders, developers, and contractors. With his vast experience and expertise, Mr. Feld is a trusted authority in the field and is highly regarded for his legal representation.
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Linda Carter, Kahana FeldMs. Carter may be contacted at
lcarter@kahanafeld.com
Construction Litigation Roundup: “This Is Sufficient for Your Purposes …”
April 08, 2024 —
Daniel Lund III - Lexology… but just barely.
Federal courts are “notice” pleading courts. One source writes: “Notice pleading refers to pleading standards that merely notify the opposing party and court of the general issues in the case. In contrast to fact pleading standards, notice pleading standards do not require pleadings to include hyper-detailed facts in support of each claim.”
Some state courts – including Louisiana – are fact pleading courts. Ordinarily, no one practicing in Louisiana state courts would describe the fact pleading requirements for initiating a lawsuit as mandating “hyper-detailing” of the facts, but … why risk it?
In a construction mechanics lien case – the jurisprudence for which requires that courts strictly construe the related law because liens empower lien holders with rights which are “in derogation” of common property ownership rights – the defendant was successful in having the trial court dismiss a lien suit for failing to affirmatively set forth in the complaint (a “petition” in Louisiana) the date of substantial completion. The lien claimant appealed.
Read the full story...Reprinted courtesy of
Daniel Lund III, PhelpsMr. Lund may be contacted at
daniel.lund@phelps.com
ASCE Releases New Report on Benefits and Burdens of Infrastructure Investment in Disadvantaged Communities
February 05, 2024 —
The American Society of Civil EngineersWashington — The
American Society of Civil Engineers today released a new paper, Measuring the Benefits and Burdens of Infrastructure in Disadvantaged Communities. The report looks at how several communities across the country consider equity when investing infrastructure funds, and the impact of those projects on lower-income communities.
"Civil engineers are focused on improving quality of life by building systems that improve the public's health, safety, and well-being," said Marsia Geldert-Murphey, P.E., 2024 President, ASCE. "However, the decisions on how and where infrastructure is built can affect communities for decades after a project is complete. By looking at the benefits and burdens of past projects, infrastructure owners and developers can find better ways to consider the impact of infrastructure projects being designed now."
Some of the recommendations in the paper include encouraging government and other infrastructure stakeholders to use community engagement and transparent metrics when making decisions about proposed infrastructure investments. It also encourages post-project assessments and the use of existing resources to evaluate the positive and unexpected consequences of past infrastructure projects.
Measuring the Benefits and Burdens of Infrastructure in Disadvantaged Communities is
available here.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 150,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America's oldest national engineering society. ASCE works to raise awareness of the need to maintain and modernize the nation's infrastructure using sustainable and resilient practices, advocates for increasing and optimizing investment in infrastructure, and improve engineering knowledge and competency. For more information, visit www.asce.org or www.infrastructurereportcard.org and follow us on Twitter, @ASCETweets and @ASCEGovRel.
Carbon Sequestration Can Combat Global Warming, Sometimes in Unexpected Ways
April 02, 2024 —
Michael S. McDonough, Robert A. James & Amanda G. Halter - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law BlogWhether by land, by sea or through human innovation, carbon sequestration is likely coming to (or already happening in) a destination near you. As our planet, overdosed on greenhouse gases, battles climate disasters, a logical solution is to simply stop pumping carbon dioxide into the air. Legislation worldwide is aimed at that target, but reducing output alone may not be enough. There are still billions of tons of extra CO2 already in the atmosphere—this crossroads is where sequestration comes into play.
Carbon sequestration is exactly what it sounds like—the storage of CO2. Once carbon is sucked out of the air, or in some cases pulled directly from industrial smokestacks, sequestration can be undertaken in a lot of different ways. Carbon storage happens naturally, when forests and oceans absorb and convert CO2 into organic matter, but carbon dioxide can also be artificially injected into deep underground rock formations (or wells), or in some cases technological approaches repurpose carbon into a resource like concrete, or as a catalyst in a closed-loop industrial system. However it’s accomplished, the point of sequestration is to stabilize carbon and ensure it doesn’t creep back into our atmosphere. Researchers, like those at the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, now say that CO2 removal is vital to keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (past that threshold, climate change could reach catastrophic levels). A 2023 University of Oxford study estimated that, currently, about two billion metric tons of carbon dioxide are being removed each year, primarily through land management (i.e., planting trees), and suggested that we need to double that amount to avoid dangerous global warming levels.
Reprinted courtesy of
Michael S. McDonough, Pillsbury,
Robert A. James, Pillsbury and
Amanda G. Halter, Pillsbury
Mr. McDonough may be contacted at michael.mcdonough@pillsburylaw.com
Mr. James may be contacted at rob.james@pillsburylaw.com
Ms. Halter may be contacted at amanda.halter@pillsburylaw.com
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Empowering Success: The Advantages of Female Attorneys in Construction Defect Law
December 11, 2023 —
Alexa Stephenson, Hoosai Kabiri & Ivette Kincaid - Kahana FeldPer the most recent U.S. Census records, women make up 50.4% of the U.S. population. It should come as no surprise then that women currently outnumber men in U.S. law schools. Nevertheless, as of 2022, only 38% of attorneys, 30% of federal judges, 22% of equity partners, and 12% of managing partners nationwide are comprised of women. While great strides have been made in the last century to increase gender equality in the legal field, there is undoubtedly still a long way to go.
Studies have shown that women in the workforce lead to a number of benefits not only to the business itself, but to a business’ employees and culture. In the realm of construction defect law in particular, the presence and contributions of female attorneys have become increasingly impactful and essential. As the legal landscape evolves, the benefits of having female attorneys practicing in this specialized field are becoming more evident, offering a range of advantages that contribute to a more diverse, comprehensive, and successful legal environment. These advantages include:
1. Diverse Perspectives: Female attorneys bring a unique perspective to the practice of construction defect law, enriching the field with their insights and experiences. Their diverse backgrounds and viewpoints can lead to innovative strategies and fresh approaches when tackling complex legal issues.
Reprinted courtesy of
Alexa Stephenson, Kahana Feld,
Hoosai Kabiri, Kahana Feld and
Ivette Kincaid, Kahana Feld
Ms. Stephenson may be contacted at astephenson@kahanafeld.com
Ms. Kabiri may be contacted at hkabiri@kahanafeld.com
Ms. Kincaid may be contacted at ikincaid@kahanafeld.com
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Hawaii Supreme Court Says Aloha to Insurers Trying to Recoup Defense Costs From Policyholders
January 02, 2024 —
Lara Degenhart Cassidy & Yosef Itkin - Hunton Insurance Recovery BlogThe Hawaii Supreme Court emphatically rejected insurer efforts to seek reimbursement of defense costs absent a provision in the policy providing for such reimbursement in St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company v. Bodell Construction Company, No. SCCQ-22-0000658, 2023 WL 7517083, (Haw. Nov. 14, 2023). The state high court’s well-reasoned decision rests on bedrock law regarding insurance policy construction and application, follows the nationwide trend of courts compelling insurers to satisfy their contractual obligations in full, and should carry great weight as other jurisdictions continue to debate the same issue.
In Bodell, the Hawaii Supreme Court joined the swelling ranks of courts recognizing that an insurer may not use a reservation of rights to create the extra-contractual “right” to recoup already paid defense costs for a claim on which the insurer ultimately owes no coverage. See, e.g., Am. & Foreign Ins. Co. v. Jerry’s Sport Ctr., Inc., 2 A.3d 526 (Pa. 2010). Other jurisdictions, such as California, will permit an insurer to seek reimbursement from a policyholder for defense costs incurred in defending claims later determined to be uncovered. See Buss v. Superior Court, 16 Cal.4th 35 (1997) (holding insurers have a right to reimbursement of defense costs incurred for noncovered claims).
Reprinted courtesy of
Lara Degenhart Cassidy, Hunton Andrews Kurth and
Yosef Itkin, Hunton Andrews Kurth
Ms. Cassidy may be contacted at lcassidy@HuntonAK.com
Mr. Itkin may be contacted at yitkin@HuntonAK.com
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Construction Litigation Roundup: “Apparently, It’s Not Always Who You Know”
December 16, 2023 —
Daniel Lund III - LexologyA respondent party in a pair of international arbitrations on the losing end of roughly $285,000,000 in adverse awards attacked the awards based upon arbitrator bias.
“If there is one bedrock rule in the law of arbitration, it is that a federal court can vacate an arbitral award only in exceptional circumstances. … The presumption against vacatur applies with even greater force when a federal court reviews an award rendered during an international arbitration.”
Applying the Federal Arbitration Act (according to the court, the international arbitrations were “seated” in the United States and fell under the New York Convention, such that the FAA is required to be the basis for vacatur efforts), the court examined assertions that certain alleged non-disclosures by the panel “concealed information related to the arbitrators’ possible biases and thereby ‘deprived [respondent] of [its] fundamental right to a fair and consensual dispute resolution process.’” The aggrieved party urged that one arbitrator’s undisclosed nomination of another arbitrator to serve as president of another arbitral panel – “a position that sometimes pays hundreds of thousands of dollars” – possibly influenced the second arbitrator to side with the first. Assertions were also levied that the arbitrators’ undisclosed work with the attorneys for the claimant in other arbitrations “allowed them to become familiar with each other, creating a potential conflict of interest.”
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Daniel Lund III, PhelpsMr. Lund may be contacted at
daniel.lund@phelps.com
The (Jurisdictional) Rebranding of The CDA’s Sum Certain Requirement
April 15, 2024 —
Jordan A. Hutcheson and Stephanie Rolfsness - Watt TiederThe Contract Disputes Act (the “CDA”), 41 U.S.C.A. §§ 7101 et seq., which has provided the statutory framework for resolution of most contract disputes between the federal government and its contractors since 1978, has recently been the subject of changes in judicial interpretation, despite no corresponding statutory changes. The CDA’s implementing provisions in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), require that contractors submit a claim to the government in the form of written demand to a contracting officer requesting a final decision and seeking the payment of money in a sum certain prior to pursuing resolution via board or court. However, with respect to the sum certain requirement, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an opinion in late 2023 determining that this requirement “should not be given the jurisdictional brand” as it has categorically received in the past. Rather, the court concluded that the sum certain requirement is merely an element of a claim for relief under the CDA that a contractor must satisfy to recover. This rebranding does not debase the sum certain requirement, but it does indicate a renewed focus on what constitutes “jurisdictional” in government contracts litigation.
Reprinted courtesy of
Jordan A. Hutcheson, Watt Tieder and
Stephanie Rolfsness, Watt Tieder
Ms. Hutcheson may be contacted at jhutcheson@watttieder.com
Ms. Rolfsness may be contacted at srolfsness@watttieder.com
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