What’s New
Brief Note:
We hope everyone enjoyed their summer and are now ready to gear up for a productive fall. We are excited to announce the launch of the Firm’s Facebook page! Please like our company page for timely updates on Firm news and new legislation. As always, please feel free to reach out to us with any questions.
Ashling Ehrhardt, Co-Editor-in-Chief
Anthony Bottenfield, Associate Editor
Recent Victories
After a week-long trial, Roy Cohen and Matthew Gioffre received a verdict from a Bucks County jury for our client, Klipper Construction Associates, Inc., in the amount of $726,809. The verdict included compensation for contract balance, additional work, delay costs, and unanticipated rock excavation and trenching on a project performed for the Warwick Township Water and Sewer Authority. The verdict also included damages for lost profits that resulted from Klipper’s loss of bonding capacity after the Authority failed to adequately compensate Klipper for its work on the project. The jury made a specific finding that the Authority acted in bad faith by withholding Klipper’s contract balance, which will allow Klipper to recover interest, penalties, and attorneys’ fees under the public Pennsylvania Procurement Code. These statutory damages will likely exceed $350,000 and will result in a final judgment approaching $1.1 million.
Edward Seglias and Robert O’Brien obtained summary judgment in the Court of Common Pleas of York County on behalf of our client, the School District of the City of York. Rado Enterprises, Inc. v. School District of the City of York involved a contract where Rado agreed to provide labor and materials necessary to perform heating, ventilation, and air conditioning construction work for the demolition, reconstruction, and partial renovation of the William Penn Senior High School in York, Pennsylvania. Rado filed a lawsuit against the School District alleging claims for loss of productivity or inefficiencies in excess of $1 million. The School District filed a counterclaim against Rado for breach of contract and violation of the Pennsylvania Procurement Code.
In the Motion for Summary Judgment, the School District argued that the claims for loss of productivity or inefficiencies were barred under the contract between the parties and failed as a matter of law due to a lack of essential expert testimony on the issue of causation. In this regard, Cohen Seglias argued that the critical path methodology and analysis was necessary to establish causation and that the plaintiff’s expert had failed to establish any causal link between the alleged breach and plaintiff’s damages. The Court agreed and granted the School District’s Motion for Summary Judgment, thus defeating Rado’s loss of productivity and inefficiency claim in its entirety. The successful Motion for Summary Judgment enabled Cohen Seglias to resolve the minor remaining portions of the parties’ claims without additional litigation.
Awards
We are pleased to announce that ten attorneys have been named Super Lawyers and three attorneys have been named Rising Stars, by Law & Politics Magazine in their 2013 edition.
The Firm’s Pennsylvania Super Lawyers named for their work in Construction Litigation are Anthony Byler, Roy Cohen, Jason Copley, Shawn Farrell, John Greenhall, George Pallas, and Edward Seglias. Marc Furman and Jonathan Landesman were named for their work in Labor and Employment, and Michael Payne for his work in Government Contracts. The Firm’s Rising Stars include Anthony Bottenfield and Matthew Gioffre who were recognized for their work in Construction Litigation, and Catherine Nguyen for her work in Labor & Employment. George Pallas and Shawn Farrell were also named New Jersey Super Lawyers for their work in Construction Litigation.
Select members from this list also will be included in the Business Edition list. Law & Politics publishes Super Lawyers annually to recognize accomplished lawyers in more than 70 areas of practice.
