News Archive

On August 14, 2019, the Court of Appeals, Ninth Judicial District (Summit County) handed Ohio subcontractors and suppliers a victory on mechanic’s lien rights by reversing and remanding a trial court decision where the lower court had held that a subcontractor’s notice of furnishing was invalid because it was served before the sub had performed any labor or […]

Contractors and Subcontractors who regularly work together frequently favor a Master Subcontract Agreement that sets forth the basic legal terms of the relationship regardless of Project, and an individual Project Work Order setting forth the scope and price on every discrete job. This saves time and hassle wrangling about subcontract language on a project-by-project basis. […]

There are two ways in Ohio that a claim for building defects is barred by time: the statute of limitations and the statute of repose. The statute of limitations is the period of time for a party suffering harm to file a lawsuit. In Ohio the contract statute of limitations on construction claims was 15 […]

The Court of Claims has ruled that the State of Ohio “Article 8” dispute resolution process applies to the surety in a takeover situation following a contractor default (Berkley Insurance Company v. Kent State University, Case No. 2018-00579JD). The trial court found that the surety had not timely initiated the “Article 8” claim process, and […]

The state of Ohio is regularly utilizing a “best value” approach to select “at risk” CMs on a subjective basis to perform work on a “cost plus” Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) basis. One frequent area of differing interests surrounds the establishment of a GMP after the contract has been awarded and significant pre-construction compensation paid. […]