Construction Services

For over 75 years, the firm has represented owner-developers, contractors, design professionals and bonding companies in connection with major construction projects in New Jersey, New York and around the country.

Our Construction Services Practice Group is an inter-disciplinary group of attorneys from our Real Estate, Litigation, Bankruptcy and Environmental Departments, dedicated to providing sophisticated, aggressive and cost-effective legal services to the construction industry.  These services include:

• Construction, construction management and design agreements
• Public contracts
• Construction disputes, including litigation and alternate dispute resolution
• Public bidding and bid qualification disputes
• Bond claims
• Construction and mechanics’ liens
• Design professional malpractice
• Contractor bankruptcies
• Purchase and sale of construction and construction materials businesses
• Environmental remediation, permitting and compliance
• Zoning, land use and development approvals
• OSHA/MSHA compliance

• Construction Lien Law – Contractor Claims:  A NJ Court ordered a dismissal of a contractor’s complaint and construction lien claim, also requiring that the contractor pay the owner’s legal fees.  The contractor then retained Cole Schotz.  Cole Schotz appealed and ultimately presented a number of novel arguments to the NJ Supreme Court on the interpretation of the NJ Construction Lien Law.  The Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s ruling in its reported decision DDB Interior Constr., Inc. v. Trends Urban Renewal, Ltd., 176 N.J. 164 (2002).  As a result of this decision, the contractor’s complaint and construction lien were reinstated, resulting in a very favorable settlement for the contractor.

• Construction Lien Law – Owner Defense:  A subcontractor filed a $600,000 construction lien for structural steel supplied at a nursing home project, after the financially troubled general contractor was unable to pay its bill.  The subcontractor then filed suit and consolidated its claims with dozens of pending claims filed against this general contractor on several unrelated construction projects.  On behalf of the owner, a large regional hospital, Cole Schotz filed several motions resulting in the Court dismissing the suit against the hospital and discharging the construction lien filed by the subcontractor.

• Public Bidding Law Claims:  After disqualifying the low bidder, West New York awarded a $9 million school construction project to the second low bidder.  The third low bidder retained Cole Schotz to challenge this award.  Cole Schotz’s review of the second low bid revealed that the contract amount would exceed the second low bidder’s aggregate rating limit.  Cole Schotz filed suit and the trial court ordered the contract be awarded to our client.  Cole Schotz successfully defeated the low bidder’s subsequent appeal to NJ Appellate and Supreme Courts.

• Architectural Malpractice Claims:  A NJ manufacturer hired an architect to design a connection to make its two adjacent buildings one large facility.  When the connection floors for the two buildings failed to meet at the same elevation, the owner retained Cole Schotz to file suit against the architect.  At the architect’s deposition we established that the architect had calculated the height of the floors by measuring a few step risers and then multiplying this height by the number of steps.  By demonstrating that this methodology relied on the mistaken assumption that the height of all of the step risers was uniform, Cole Schotz was able to obtain a very favorable settlement for the owner shortly after the deposition.

• Construction Manager Claims:  A Newark private school refused to pay a construction manager, claiming it never had an agreement with it.  Despite the absence of a signed contract, Cole Schotz was able to negotiate a six-figure payment by the private school to the construction manager.

• General Contractor Defense:  The owner of a senior citizens’ center in Montclair, NJ sued the general contractor claiming a large number of defects in the construction of its facility.  The general contractor retained Cole Schotz who brought a number of subcontractors into the case, ultimately resulting in a settlement of all of the owners’ claims, overwhelmingly funded by the subcontractors.

• Subcontractor Claims:  A general contractor on Newark building project refused to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the HVAC subcontractor, citing the fact that the change orders for this work were not signed by either the owner or the general contractor and claiming that the HVAC system was defective.  The HVAC subcontractor retained Cole Schotz who demanded arbitration of its claims before the AAA.  The arbitrator ruled that the HVAC system was not defective and required the general contractor to pay all of the HVAC change orders.

• NY and NJ Representation:  A general contractor refused to pay a NJ subcontractor its $500,000 bill for asphalt supplied on a NY shopping mall project.  The general contractor claimed that it had not been paid by the owner.  On behalf of the asphalt subcontractor, we filed a NY mechanic’s lien against the shopping mall, a suit in NY to foreclose this lien and a separate suit in NJ against the general contractor for breach of contract.  We then intervened in the pending AAA arbitration between the owner and the general contractor.  As a result of these efforts, and well before the conclusion of the arbitration, the owner agreed to a settlement involving the payment of our client’s bill in exchange for an assignment to the owner of our client’s claims against the general contractor.

• Creative Sources of Recovery:  After it had sold all of the property lots within a residential subdivision, a NJ developer refused to pay the paving subcontractor on the project.  The developer, a limited liability company, had allegedly previously transferred all of its assets to related companies and individuals.  On behalf of the paving subcontractor we discovered that the town was still holding a significant cash deposit from the developer.  In an innovative use of the NJ Municipal Mechanic’ s Lien Law, we filed suit against the town, resulting in the town’s payment to our client of the full amount of the cash deposit.  After the developer defaulted in our lawsuit against it, we obtained a judgment and subpoenaed a large array of financial documents from the developer and related companies and individuals to search for any fraudulent asset transfers.  The case settled at the subsequent deposition of one of the developer’s principals for the full amount of the claim.

• Surety Defense –- Takeover, Completion and Resolution of Claims:  Faced with the termination of its general contractor on a $30 million nursing home project in New York, the GC’s filing of a chapter 11, and criminal charges against the principals, the GC’s bonding company turned to Cole Schotz.  We worked  out heavily negotiated, successful takeover and completion contracts, resulting in completion of the troubled project.  Working closely with the client and its consultants, we also resolved dozens of subcontractor and supplier claims and succeeded in court against the bonding company’s indemnitors by obtaining pre-judgment security for losses and recovery of judgments in the New York Supreme Court and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Contracts

• We represented a major contractor in connection with a design-build, guaranteed maximum price contract with a major national home builder for a large condominium project in West New York, on New Jersey’s Gold Coast.
• We represented a major retail chain in connection with a design-build contract for a 721,000 square foot warehouse and distribution facility in Florence, NJ.
• We represented a major New York/New Jersey/Connecticut automobile dealer in connection with the construction of two new automobile dealership facilities.
• When a trade contractor walked off the job on a project for our client, a Fortune 100 company, we prepared a contract for a replacement contractor on an emergency basis, helping our client to avoid further delays on the job.

• The Absence of Privity on Construction Projects Poses Difficulties, New Jersey Law Journal
• New Jersey's Amended Prompt Payment Act: One Year Later, The Bergen Barrister
• The "Pay-if-Paid" Clause - A Suspect Subcontract Provision, Cole Schotz Docket
• Subcontractor's Right to Payment, New Jersey Law Journal
• Home Improvement Contractors Beware, Cole Schotz Docket