In a move observers say could have big implications for U.S. climate-change policy, five large electric utilities said on March 16 that they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower-court ruling that subjects them to lawsuits claiming that their carbon-dioxide emissions cause health problems, coastal erosion and other climate-change impacts. The utilities—American Electric Power, Southern Co., Tennessee Valley Authority, Xcel Energy and Cinergy, a unit of Duke Energy—said in court papers obtained by Platt’s (like ENR, a unit of the McGrawHill Cos.) that the high court should hear their case because it presents “substantial constitutional and jurisprudential
Participants in some of New York City’s largest concrete construction projects are now trying to determine the potential impact of the Feb. 17 conviction of the city’s main concrete testing firm and its owner for filing false test reports. A state supreme court jury in Manhattan rules that Testwell Laboratories and its owner, V. Reddy Kancharla, were guilty of the flawed fillings related to concrete strength on more than 100 projects that used the firm’s services. They included the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero and the Second Avenue subway. The jury has yet to rule on other charges against Kancharla,
In a unanimous decision, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled February 11 that contractors are covered under their commercial general liability policies for subcontractor work later found to be defective, adding momentum to a national battle being fought state by state over whether insurers are actually providing coverage defined and paid for in those policies. Related Links: Mississippi Insurance Case Could Reshape Contractor Policies “It has implications for the rest of the country because the policies being written and enforced throughout the U.S. are identical to the policies the Mississippi court has addressed,” says Mike Kennedy, general counsel of the Associated
The owners of the Alabama landfill that is taking about 10,000 tons per day of coal-ash waste from a collapsed Tennessee Valley Authority storage site in Kingston, Tenn., have filed for bankruptcy. Perry Uniontown Ventures I LLC, which owns the Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County, filed papers in federal court in Mobile last month saying facility operators Phillips & Jordan and Phill-Con Services are withholding money they have received from TVA. The operators claim an “outstanding balance” owed them by the owners. A spokesman for the landfill owners says the site will continue to operate, and a TVA official says
The federal appeals court in New Orleans on Nov. 25 dismissed class-action lawsuits for Hurricane Katrina-related damages against 32 major dredging contractors. Two groups of plaintiffs sued companies that worked under federal contracts in the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), claiming that work damaged protected wetlands and caused an amplification of the storm surge in the New Orleans region during the 2005 hurricane. The 5th U.S. Court of Appeal Circuit in Ackerson v. Bean Dredging LLC, upholding a federal district court’s ruling, applied the principal that public-works contractors duly carrying out projects authorized by Congress have immunity from lawsuits for
Banks in New York state may have some new worries about lending to projects they think are having difficulties. A state appeals court has ordered Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corp. to resume funding on the $330-million Destiny USA project, near Syracuse. The court said the developer is entitled to a preliminary injunction in its breach-of contract suit against the bank because the project is “unique.” The $155-million Citigroup loan is one of three funding sources for the first phase of the project, which involves construction of an 800,000-sq-ft shopping center/tourist destination and related facilities. The other funding sources are Destiny
A federal district court judge in Newark, N.J., dismissed a lawsuit brought by Ronald Schiavone, former co-owner of heavy contractor Schiavone Construction Co., Secaucus, N.J., claiming he was cheated by his former partner, Raymond J. Donovan, in proceeds gained from the firm’s December 2007 sale to ACS, a Spanish construction conglomerate. ACS paid $150 million for Schiavone. Judge Susan Wigenton ruled the case lacked jurisdiction because Donovan, also a former U.S. Labor Secretary in the Reagan administration, was a resident of Florida and not a New Jersey resident. An attorney for Schiavone says the case may be refiled in Florida,
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. failed to convince a Minnesota state judge to throw out the claims against the company related to the collapse of the Interstate-35W bridge in Minneapolis two years ago. The company had argued that it didn’t owe Minnesota any of the $37 million the state paid out to victims because the design work performed on the bridge was done more than 40 years earlier. A state court judge in Hennepin County on Aug. 28 ruled that the state’s lawsuit against Jacobs, one of several engineers and contractors targeted, could continue. As the bridge’s principal designer, Jacobs is
Contractors across the nation will be watching the Mississippi Supreme Court on Oct. 5 to see if it upholds a Rankin County Circuit Court decision that ruled an insurer is not responsible for subcontractor performance under a contractor’s commercial general liability policy. In Architex Association Inc. v. Scottsdale Insurance Co., Architex alleges that “an unintended construction defect by a subcontractor constitutes an occurrence that triggers coverage under a contractor’s CGL insurance policy,” according to a statement from the law firm of Burr & Forman LLP, Jackson, Miss., which represents Architex. The lawsuit alleges that Arizona-based Scottsdale has a “duty to
It has been more than two years since the Interstate-35W bridge in Minneapolis suddenly collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people and injuring 145 others, and yet scores of lawsuits filed against firms involved in the bridge’s design and upkeep are just getting under way. Photo: Tudor Van Hampton / ENR The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis more than two years ago has spawned 121 lawsuits. While the replacement bridge, completed last year, required the attention of more than 600 craft workers and engineers, just one state judge, Deborah Hedlund, sitting in the Hennepin County District
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