Florida Construction Legal Updates

If you are entertaining a differing site conditions claim, consider this Third District Court of Appeals case from the mid-90s. In Hendry Corp. v. Metropolitan Dade County, 648 So.2d 140 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995), a contractor was hired by Dade County to demolish the old Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami. The original 1941 plans of the […]

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Contract drafting and interpretation matters. A case dealt with the potential conflict with prefatory language in an agreement compared with operative provisions in the agreement. The trial court held that the operative provisions control. I discussed this case here where the appellate court reversed based on the prefatory language. But, through a motion for rehearing, […]

The post PREFATORY CONTRACT LANGUAGE CANNOT BE USED TO CREATE AN AMBIGUITY WITH OPERATIVE PROVISIONS appeared first on Florida Construction Legal Updates.

In an insurance coverage lawsuit seeking declaratory relief, an insurer sued the third-party claimant.  The insurer was seeking a declaration that there was no coverage, which naturally would impact the third-party claimant. The insured did not respond to the lawsuit and the insurer moved for a default judgment which was objected to by the third-party […]

The post ANOMALY IN ADDING A THIRD-PARTY CLAIMANT TO A LIABILITY INSURANCE COVERAGE DISPUTE appeared first on Florida Construction Legal Updates.

Under Florida’s Lien Law, there’s an affirmative defense or affirmative claim known as a “fraudulent lien.”   The fraudulent lien defense or claim is set out in Florida Statute s. 713.31.  This defense also extends to payment bond claims, whether under a private statutory payment bond (Florida Statute s. 713.23) or a public payment bond (Florida […]

The post ALERT: FRAUDULENT NOTICE OF NONPAYMENT DEFENSE APPLIES TO PAYMENT BOND CLAIMS appeared first on Florida Construction Legal Updates.

A recent decision from the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals confirms that “only a ‘contractor’ may file an appeal of a contracting officer’s final decision.”  Wattiker v. General Services Administration, 2026 WL 846001 (CBCA 2026) (citation omitted). The term “contractor is not an ambiguous term. A ‘contractor’ refers to a party to a federal government […]

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A recent Miller act payment bond case, U.S. f/u/b/o Whitetail General Constructors v. Northcon, Inc., 2026 WL 46671 (D.Mont. 2026), contains a short noteworthy discussion as to a surety’s liability being coextensive with that of its bond principal. If you are bonded, or you are pursuing a bond, you need to appreciate this, which is […]

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In a recent case dealing with a construction lien, the driving issue was whether the air conditioning contractor “substantially performed” before recording its construction lien against residential property. The importance here pertains to the substantial performance doctrine with respect to construction liens. The Third District Court of Appeal explained, with relevant citations, this doctrine as […]

The post CONSTRUCTION LIENS AND THE “SUBSTANTIAL PERFORMANCE” DOCTRINE appeared first on Florida Construction Legal Updates.

“The purpose of a performance bond is to guarantee the completion of the contract upon default by the contract.”  Arch Insurance Co. v. A3 Development, LLC, 2026 WL 632330 (S.D. Fla. 2026) (internal citations and quotations omitted). If you are an obligee (beneficiary of a performance bond) looking to trigger the surety’s obligations COMPLETION OBLIGATIONS […]

The post DEPRIVING A PERFORMANCE BOND SURETY OF COMPLETION OPTIONS WILL RESULT IN A BREACH OF THE BOND appeared first on Florida Construction Legal Updates.

An older case deals with three important considerations: (1) defective specifications; (2) whether the defective specifications were misleading or misrepresentative; and (3) applying the jury verdict method in quantifying damages. In Metric Construction Co., Inc. v. U.S., 80 Fed. Cl. 178 (Fed. Cl. 2008), a contractor was contracted by the federal government to construct a […]

The post APPLYING JURY VERDICT METHOD IN QUANTIFYING DAMAGES DUE TO DEFECTIVE SPECIFICATIONS appeared first on Florida Construction Legal Updates.

If you need a construction lien prepared, please work with a construction counsel in doing so. Don’t use a service that’s going to charge you less but isn’t going to analyze the information or ask you questions based on the information you provide them to include in the lien. You are selling yourself short if […]

The post MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT TO INCLUDE AND NOT INCLUDE IN A LIEN appeared first on Florida Construction Legal Updates.