Construction

A plaintiff-buyer’s notice that does not satisfy the Right to Repair Act’s requirement of describing a construction defect in reasonable detail nevertheless is sufficient to trigger the builder's 14 day time period for acknowledging receipt of the notice.  Read More

A materials supplier may be held liable under Civil Code 895 for defects in newly built residences only if (a) the supplier is strictly liable in tort, or (b) the supplier contributed to the defects by its own negligent act or omission or breach of contract.  Read More

Insurer owed no duty to indemnify an insured construction contractor under a CGL policy for damages it paid the owner of a building for injury to the building's flooring, since the injury occurred because the insured performed a deliberate, non-accidental act—ordering the subcontractor to lay the flooring over wet concrete—and there was no additional, unexpected, unforeseen or independent event that… Read More

The Right to Repair Act, which requires compliance with rules requiring pre-litigation notice and opportunity to repair faulty construction prior to the filing of a suit, was intended to apply to any action for damages arising from deficiencies in new residential construction which was purchased after January 1, 2003.  Read More

CGL insurer owed its insured, a contractor, a duty of defense against claim that the insured’s mis-installation of a chimney caused a fire that destroyed the house; even though the fire occurred outside the policy period, the wood surrounding the chimney may have suffered progressive deterioration starting in the policy period and ultimately leading to the fire.  Read More

In lawsuit by a subcontractor’s worker who was injured on the job, summary judgment was properly entered in favor of defendant general contractor, because a general is not responsible for injuries to a sub’s workers unless the general either contributed to the injury or breached a non-delegable duty it owed to the worker, and neither of those exceptions applied here.  Read More

A judgment in favor of a contractor's injured employee and against the homeowner who hired the contractor is affirmed under the “retained control exception” to the independent contractor rule, since the homeowner retained control by assuming responsibility for obtaining building permits and city inspections—one purpose of which is to assure that the work is safely carried out.  Read More

In this suit for extra compensation under plaintiff's subcontract to supply expansion joints for a bridge overpass construction project, extra compensation was reasonably calculable as it depended solely on the difference in price between cheaper two expansion joint assemblies and the four expansion joint assemblies that the defendant belatedly insisted on, so trial court should have awarded pre-judgment interest.  Read More

The trial court properly denied a general contractor’s promissory estoppel claim as the general could not show it reasonably relied on the defendant subcontractor’s bid price while seeking to renegotiate the accompanying conditions to the sub’s bid.  Read More

An insurer that was assigned its insured’s claim against its subcontractor could continue the suit in the insured’s name under CCP 368.5 after the assignment, but could not use that procedural convenience to avoid liability for the subcontractor’s attorney fees when it lost. Read More

When the public entity owner stopped deducting retention amounts midway through a project but did not pay the prime contractor retention amounts already withheld, prime contractor was not required to pay subcontractors retention amounts it had previously withheld.  Read More