Contract construction

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My old law partner Carl Salisbury is on the warpath against carriers’ efforts to escape construction defect coverage.  He has some interesting things to say about a recent pro-carrier South Carolina decision.  You can read Carl’s excellent blog post by clicking here.  (I promise not to call them “business risk” exclusions any more,

Here’s some advice I would give to anyone contemplating becoming a general contractor:  Don’t.   The liability insurance coverage picture is too muddy, and coverage for completed operations is too uncertain.  My secondary, and perhaps more realistic, advice: Review your subcontractors’ general liability coverage and make sure there’s adequate protection if you need to bring suit…

A few months back, I got a call from the general counsel of a construction company.  His employer was the general contractor in a construction defect case, and he needed some advice with respect to the applicable “additional insured” coverage. “Now, you do know about this stuff, right?” he asked.  “I don’t want to have…

On May 20, 2014, I’ll be speaking at Perrin’s Emerging Insurance Coverage & Allocation Issues Conference at The Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. My panel (shared with the inimitable Gary Kull of Carroll, McNulty & Kull, representing the insurance industry view of things), will focus on “Best Practices for Additional Insureds.” If you can …

My late Uncle Carmen was an accountant who worked for the IRS.  One tax season, I was grousing about how complicated the 1040 form could be. Uncle Carmen didn’t suffer fools gladly, and, with the veins bulging from his neck, insisted that NOTHING ON EARTH COULD BE SIMPLER.  My response was to engage in a…

One of the celebrities we lost in 2013 was the novelist Tom Clancy. I wasn’t a Clancy devotee, but I have to admit that “Red Storm Rising” and “The Hunt for Red October” were excellent military thrillers. In “Red October,” the KGB officer on board the Russian submarine (Red October) thinks that, rather than surrendering…

There’s an old story about famous Greek orators. When Demosthenes would speak, the people would say, “My, what a pretty speech!”  But when Cato would speak, the people would say, “On to Carthage.”  That’s because Cato was a one-issue guy (“Carthage must be destroyed”), and was excellent at convincing his listeners of the need for…

With the one-year anniversary of Sandy just having passed, many policyholders are asking how long they have to sue their carrier. Be careful. Many insurance policies contain limitations periods that shorten the general six-year statute of limitations for breach of contract in New Jersey. Such provisions are enforceable both in New Jersey and in New…

Insurance company claims personnel tend to view the concept of “ambiguity” as the last refuge of a scoundrel.  That’s because unhappy policyholders often reflexively argue that a particular term in dispute is “ambiguous.” On the other hand, miserly insurance companies often argue that the term is perfectly clear. Neither side usually understands what the term…