By Anam R. Fazli, Associate Attorney In October 2020, the Houston First Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling that parents whose claims were brought on behalf of their minor children against a homebuilder accused of construction defects that caused mold growth are not subject to arbitration because [...]
By Bryce C. Reback, Attorney* The construction industry is one that unsurprisingly is ever changing. Whether it be the laws governing the erection of new structures, or a sub-contractors rights under a contract, the industry has always been one to adapt. This is even more true as it pertains [...]
By Francis D. McWilliams IV, Senior Associate Rolling power outages stemming from freezing weather conditions have paralyzed Houston and much of Texas. As of February 18th, approximately 511,000 homes and businesses are still without electricity. Earlier in the week approximately three million homes and businesses were affected. The weather [...]
By Francis D. McWilliams IV, Senior Associate Introduction This too shall pass. The first round of vaccinations to Covid-19 currently rolling out, bringing with them a cautious optimism among the legal community, and the public at large, that things may in the foreseeable future return to the way they [...]
By Bryce C. Reback, Attorney* The construction project hierarchy is familiar and well established. The owner hires the general contractor, and in turn the contractor hires subcontractors. In the unfortunate event that a legally actionable incident occurs there is plenty of settled law as to who can be held [...]
By Francis D. McWilliams IV, Senior Associate Due to the global pandemic and recent spike in COVID-19 cases, it’s anyone’s guess when Texas jury trials will resume. Arbitration, however, is moving forward virtually thanks to the array of virtual platforms available to the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”). I recently [...]
By Stephen A. Dwyer, Attorney For many years, practitioners have used Section 18.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code as a strong weapon in their arsenal for proving damages. The statute works to allow a claimant to essentially prove up damages prior to trial by simply serving [...]
By Lawrence J. West, Partner and Allegra S. Melton, Associate Attorney I. Introduction As the Texas Supreme Court pointed out in LAN v. Eby[1], construction cases are particularly well suited for the application of the economic loss rule because construction projects operate by agreement and the parties are in [...]
By Anam R. Fazli, Associate Attorney COVID-19 continues to impact the construction industry. Contractors and owners are realizing that many projects will be delayed for months- and time is money. The ultimate question is: who is liable for delay costs? The answer is in the written agreement. Provisions addressing [...]
By Francis D. McWilliams, Senior Associate Attorney and Anam R. Fazli, Associate Attorney Just over a century ago, a new strain of influenza arose and quickly spread throughout the world. This new illness, the Spanish flu, quickly reached the level of a worldwide pandemic in the early twentieth century. [...]