Dallas Austin

The headlines are mesmerizing, though not in a good way.  On the heels of a pandemic that has cost thousands of citizens their lives, a Caucasian man kills an African American man in the upper Midwest.  Protests break out that devolve into riots and spread to other cities.  The National Guard is called out.  The economic health of the country and income security of millions of Americans, both convalescing from the pandemic, hang in the balance.  The year is 1919.  And 2020.   As the old adage says, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  But history rarely repl

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

As more and more Texas businesses re-open and adjust to the new normal, it is easy to forget that COVID-19-specific orders and statutes, like the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), still apply.  The FFRCA is effective through the end of 2020.  Under certain circumstances, the FFCRA requires an employer to continue some or all of the employee’s wages through Emergency Paid Leave or Extended Leave. For more specifics about paid leave and extended family leave under FFCRA, please refer to our previous post on this topic. Here are some further considerations to remember about FFC

What does a COVID-19 unsafe workplace lawsuit look like?  We did not have to wait long to find out.  Just a few months into the pandemic, one of the first such lawsuits has been brought in Dallas County, Texas.  On April 30, 2020, the spouse of a Dallas meat plant worker who died from coronavirus sued her late-husband’s employer for claims of negligence and wrongful death in Parra and Dominguez v. Quality Sausage Company, LLC.  The Dominguez case raises some extremely difficult practical and legal questions such as how does an employer execute its responsibilities to create a safe workpl