Mealey's Construction Defects : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Construction Defects

November 03, 2022
Pa. Panel Denies Homebuilders’ Petition For Reargument On Discovery Issues

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania appellate panel denied homebuilders’ petition for reargument of its opinion upholding a trial court’s decision finding that their spreadsheets containing lists of customers who complained of water intrusion damages were not privileged or protected as attorney work product because the documents were factual in nature and prepared by the companies’ operations department, not their legal counsel.
November 01, 2022
Wash. High Court: Limit On Time To Sue For Construction Defects Is Unconscionable

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A one-year statute of limitations contained in a warranty provision in a new home construction contract is unconscionable and unenforceable given Washington’s statutory six-year statute of limitations for defect claims, a majority of the Washington Supreme Court found in voiding the contract provision.
November 01, 2022
Calif. Panel Affirms Custom Home Ruling Against Owner Who Failed To Provide Record

LOS ANGELES — A California trial court properly denied a homeowner’s motion for new trial and motion to tax costs because the homeowner failed to provide an adequate record on appeal after he sued the contractors, managers and subcontractors for the allegedly defective construction of his custom home, a California appellate panel ruled.
October 27, 2022
Magistrate: Homeowners Affected By Chinese Drywall Can Seek Punitive Damages

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Plaintiffs should be given the opportunity to prove that they are entitled to punitive damages and that a previous award of $6 million in punitive damages, which was not fully paid in a subsequent post-trial settlement, was not enough to punish or deter the manufacturers of defective Chinese drywall, a federal magistrate judge in Florida found in recommending the denial in part and granting in part of the manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment in a consolidation of 25 cases.
October 27, 2022
Connecticut Judge: Failure To Remedy Faulty Paving Not An Unfair Business Practice

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — After a contractor failed to grade and pave a parking lot in accordance with an engineering plan and did not remedy its work, a Connecticut judge held that absent a showing of an aggravating factor, a property owner’s claims of breach of contract and negligence are not enough to allege a violation of the state’s unfair trade practices law.
October 27, 2022
Homeowners Association Awarded Damages For Contractor’s Defective Work

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut judge found that a homeowners association was entitled to $94,061 in damages on its negligence and breach of contract claims for deficient and incomplete construction services performed on its common interest community.
October 26, 2022
Grenfell Tower Residents’ Petition For Rehearing Denied By 3rd Circuit

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc of a panel decision that affirmed the dismissal of a strict product liability case against the manufacturers of allegedly flammable panels that were used in London’s Grenfell Tower, which burned down in 2017, and removed a condition placed on the dismissal that could have allowed the case to return to the trial court, rejecting former tower residents’ arguments that the panel erred by failing to correct the lower court’s application of Pennsylvania product liability law, by removing the dismissal condition and by finding the standard of review used by the trial court permissible.
October 25, 2022
Chinese Drywall Claims Dismissed Because Home Was Purchased At Judicial Auction

MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida dismissed all of a homeowner’s Chinese drywall claims under the common-law doctrine of caveat emptor because the home was purchased at a judicial auction sale, which was a condition the judge imposed when partially granting the drywall manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment in a separate case that stemmed from the same multidistrict litigation.
October 24, 2022
Motion To Realign Parties Denied By Alabama Federal Judge In Stucco Dispute

MOBILE, Ala. — Joined by four other defendants, a stucco manufacturer saw its motion to realign a plaintiff general contractor as a defendant denied and its alternative motion to dismiss, joined by only two others, partially granted by a federal judge in Alabama, who held that a defendant does not get to decide who a plaintiff should sue in an action brought by a homeowner over defective stucco used on a newly built home.
October 24, 2022
Texas Panel: Homebuyers Can’t Afford Arbitration, Can’t Be Forced To Arbitrate

SAN ANTONIO — After considering the fee schedule of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and the monthly budget of a homebuying couple, a Texas appellate panel found that a trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a builder’s motion to compel arbitration because the costs of litigation would be cheaper in a case regarding the defective construction of a new home’s foundation.
October 21, 2022
Pa. Panel: Alleged Repairs Didn’t Toll Statute Of Repose For Construction Defects

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The statute of repose period started to run when a home’s certificate of occupancy was issued and was not tolled by a builder’s alleged inspections and repairs, a Pennsylvania appellate panel found in affirming a trial court’s dismissal as time-barred of construction defects claims filed by homeowners.
October 21, 2022
Connecticut Supreme Court Will Hear Defective Foundation Construction Claims

HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Supreme Court granted a petition for certification of appeal filed by the executors of the estates of two condominium owners who alleged that the foundations of their units were defectively constructed but will limit its review to which statute of limitations is applicable.
October 17, 2022
Federal Judge: Chinese Drywall Cases’ Florida Unfair Trade Practices Claims Barred

MIAMI — Claims by homeowners in more than a dozen related cases against Chinese drywall manufacturers alleging violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA) are barred by Florida’s economic loss rule as the FDUTPA permits only “the recovery of economic losses,” recovery not permitted in a products liability case, a federal judge in Florida ruled in a supplemental order.
October 14, 2022
5th Circuit Rejects Objector’s Claim PEX Piping Class Settlement Is Underfunded

NEW ORLEANS — The sole objector to a $7.65 million class settlement in a lawsuit by homeowners who claimed that defective polyethylene (PEX) piping that could result in leaks and damage was used in their homes failed to show that the agreement between the homeowners and piping maker NIBCO Inc. was inadequate, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s approval of the settlement.
October 14, 2022
Judge Approves Consent Motion In ADA Violation Suit Against Housing Authority

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge approved the U.S. Department of Justice’s motion for a $250,000 consent judgment in a suit filed against the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and seven private developers alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) in building eight multiunit residential facilities.
October 14, 2022
Indiana Panel: Homeowners Pleaded Remedy, Not Cause Of Action For Deck Claims

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana appellate panel found that a trial court erred in applying the state’s product liability statute to a case in which homeowners sued three wood and chemical companies for allegedly treating their deck with toxic arsenic; however, the panel affirmed the trial court’s dismissal because the homeowners pleaded “equitable remediation,” which the panel found was not a valid cause of action.
October 06, 2022
Homeowner: Arbitrator’s Award Of Attorney Fees In Mold Case Did Not Ignore The Law

EDINBURG, Texas — In response to a motion for rehearing in a construction defects case stemming from the discovery of mold in a new home, the homeowners contend that an arbitrator’s award granting attorney fees in favor of the homeowners should not be vacated by the Texas appellate panel because there is no proof that the arbitrator chose to ignore the law.
October 06, 2022
Magistrate Announces Settlement, Orders Future Dismissal Of Defective Roofing Case

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — In a text entry order, a federal magistrate judge announced that a settlement had been reached ina lawsuit brought by property owners against a contractor they claim failed to properly repair the roof of a historic mill.
October 05, 2022
Roofing Contractor Says 4th Complaint Specifically Pleads Product Liability Claims

FORT MYERS, Fla. — In response to motions to dismiss brought by a roofing manufacturer and its supplier, a roofing contractor says it has pleaded its products liability, fraudulent concealment and failure to warn claims with specificity, that it has diligently complied with the court’s previous orders and that its fourth amended complaint cures all the deficiencies of its prior complaint, which was dismissed as shotgun pleading by a federal judge in Florida for failing to differentiate causes of actions between the defendants.
October 04, 2022
Homeowners’ Estates Petition Connecticut High Court To Hear Condo Foundation Suits

HARTFORD, Conn. — The executors of the estates of the owners of two condominiums who alleged that the foundations of the units were defectively constructed petitioned the Connecticut Supreme Court arguing that an appeals court’s holding that the condominium association was not responsible for damages to the two condominiums’ foundations as uninsured common elements was erroneous and presents an issue that has not been decided by the high court.
October 04, 2022
South Carolina High Court: Homebuilders’ Arbitration Provisions Unconscionable

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court, citing public policy concerns, declined to sever unconscionable arbitration provisions from contracts for the sale of newly built homes and found that the “one-sided” contracts were unconscionable.
October 04, 2022
U.S. Government Settles ADA Violation Suit Against Housing Authority For $250,000

NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Department of Justice on Oct. 3 announced that the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and seven private developers agreed to a $250,000 settlement in a Louisiana federal court suit filed against HANO and the builders, alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) in building eight multi-unit residential facilities.
October 04, 2022
Supreme Court Denies Del. Homeowner’s Petition To Review Construction Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3 denied a Delaware homeowner’s petition for writ of certiorari seeking clarification of the meaning of default judgment from a Delaware Supreme Court decision in which the third of his four cases alleging defective construction of his new home brought against the same defendant homebuilders was denied for his failure to appeal or arbitrate his claims.
September 30, 2022
Care Homes’ Architect Agrees To $450,000 Settlement In ADA Violation Suit

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — In a Sept. 29 minute docket entry, a Pennsylvania federal judge held a telephone status conference one day after issuing a consent order approving a $450,000 settlement that includes an architectural firm depositing $350,000 in a retrofit fund, in a suit brought by the U.S. government against the owners of senior homes and the architects who designed them, alleging failure to meet the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.
September 30, 2022
Split Ariz. High Court: No Waiving Implied Workmanship, Habitability Warranty

PHOENIX — Public policy bars the enforcement of any waiver of an implied warranty of workmanship and habitability in any contract in Arizona entered into between a builder-vendor and a homebuyer, a divided Arizona Supreme Court ruled.