Dallas Austin

What is a design professional’s legal responsibility for an enhancement to her original design?  What if the enhancement is necessitated by a design error and omission?  Welcome to world of betterment, not necessarily a better world, but almost certainly a bettered one. What is betterment?  If you are looking for a Texas court or statute to define “betterment”, you will have a long and frustrating search.  While there are cases that reference jury instructions about betterment and there are Texas statutes that discuss “improvements”, there is no definitive case-law or statutory d

Bankruptcy or even the threat of it, whether of an owner, contractor, or supplier, can have significant repercussions on a construction project.  At the whiff of insolvency, an owner may terminate the contract and take an assignment of subcontracts.  Mechanic’s liens and payment disputes become more complex and potentially uncollectible.  Insurer’s payment of third-party claims may require court oversight.  Understanding these impacts may allow you to prepare a shelter before the bankruptcy storm hits. 1.    Assignment of Subcontracts Many contracts, particularly those modeled after

Unforeseen site conditions can entirely disrupt an ongoing project or prevent it from it getting off the ground in the first place. Apart from the time impacts unforeseen site conditions can wreak on a project, they also can wind up costing owners and contractors substantial amounts of money.  Much of Texas’s case law interpreting unforeseen site condition provisions derive from the seminal Texas Supreme Court case of Lonergan v. San Antonio Loan and Trust Company. In Lonergan, the contractor constructed a building according to plans and specifications developed by an owner-retained archite

What rights do contractors have to inspect and repair alleged defects in projects?  How are those rights exercised and preserved? Recent events have breathed newfound urgency into these questions. The unparalleled construction activity in the State over the past decade combined with the rapid deceleration of the national economy due the novel coronavirus pandemic promises to bring an uptick in claims relating to construction defects, alleged or real.    The answers depend, in part, on the nature of the project.  For residential construction, which includes pools and condominiums, at least

In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic resembles the movie, Groundhog Day.  The endless stay-at-home days that blend together anonymously aside, one déjà vu legal issue is the prospect of increased claims relating to not-yet-completed as well as completed projects.  The proliferation of the use of novel and proprietary construction building materials assures that product liability claims will be part of many construction disputes. In Texas, product liability claims are governed by case law and a statute, Chapter 82 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code (Chapter 82).  As we enter un