Overview
Pullman & Comley’s construction lawyers have extensive experience in matters involving the owner or the general contractor, a subcontractor or a surety, a designer or a construction manager or a supplier of materials or equipment. Because these attorneys are construction litigators, they bring to the task of contract negotiation, in-project counseling, and favorable resolution assistance a perspective that non-litigators may lack.
Among the many types of matters our construction lawyers litigate, arbitrate and/or mediate are multi-million dollar claims including:
- Contract termination matters
- Changed conditions disputes
- Issues relating to changes in the work and change orders
- Claims for delay and acceleration
- Indemnification claims
- Matters concerning materials, construction, installation, and/or design defects
- Matters concerning owner’s payments to contractors when time is of the essence for completion of an ongoing project
- Claims for increased fees, cost overruns, and additional services compensation
- Disputes involving construction management contract terms
- Nuisance and personal injury claims stemming from ongoing construction projects
- Disputes including alleged subcontractor theft
- Those relating to the bidding process primarily on public projects, including bid protest and bid mistake matters
- Performance and payment bond claims and matters concerning the assertion of mechanics lien rights
- Recording mechanic's liens and substituting lien bonds for liens
- Mechanic’s lien foreclosures and other litigation regarding payment
- Transition from owner-developers to HOAs
- Unforeseen subsurface conditions
- Claims involving release environmental contaminants resulting from project work and historic contamination cleanup
- New home warranty claims
Our construction lawyers also assist clients with contract negotiation and partner with lawyers from other practices of the firm to provide the full range of legal services our construction industry clients need, including labor relations, bankruptcy advice and representation, and insurance coverage claims prosecution.
Experience
Won a seven-figure award for a contractor in arbitration on a changed conditions claim, notwithstanding the presence of “unclassified site” language in the bidding documents
Successfully extracted a contractor from a seven-figure bid mistake
Successfully represented the owner in connection with numerous claims relating to the construction of a major New Haven office tower
Successfully defended a delay claim against a subcontractor on a major hospital construction project
Won summary judgment for a surety on a first impression statute of limitations issues and preserved the judgment on appeal to the Second Circuit
Obtained dismissal of lawsuit against architect in a roof collapse case where the plaintiff sought to make the architect liable on a strict tort theory
Won a three-week trial for a Connecticut municipality in the Superior Court Complex Litigation Docket, defeating a trade contractor's seven-figure delay claim
News & Insights
Events
Publications
Pullman & Comley attorneys have been closely monitoring the legal implications for businesses, municipalities, educational institutions and other organizations of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, and have been responding to a broad range of client questions. For your reference, we have summarized recent publications and blog posts authored by our attorneys here: FOCUS: Responding to COVID-19.