Construction Cases
Art Caltrider
Bodie, Dolina, Smith & Hobbs
21 W. Susquehanna Ave.
Towson. Md. 21204
410 823 1250
acaltrider@bodienagle.com
The following cases were resolved before a jury, settled before trial or managed by me while at Travelers.
Condominium
I represented a roofing subcontractor in this construction defect action involving multiple buildings and multiple units (condominiums numbering in the hundreds) where the primary allegation was water intrusion. The general contractor who sued my client filed a motion for summary judgment arguing the statute of limitations and the statute of repose as construction was completed more than 10 years before the complaint was filed. The general contractor’s motion was denied. At that point in the litigation third party defendants (subcontractors) were brought into the case. Despite the courts view of the generals argument we went ahead and filed our own motion for summary judgment making a similar argument but this time the court granted our motion based upon limitations and repose.
Paving / Grading / Utilities
I represented a paving grading utilities contractor as a plaintiff and counter defendant in the Circuit Court for Carroll County. I am told the verdict at that time was the largest verdict in Carroll County. The owner was building a shopping mall in Carroll County and contracted with my client to install utilities, grade and pave. Due to the cold weather conditions work stopped for several months. Kidde Consultants hired by the owner was out there daily taking temperature readings etc. Eventually the owner said we breached our contract and kicked us off the site. We filed for breach of contract and the owner counter sued seeking relief from my clients bond. The bonding company retained me to defend their interests as well. The case was won during closing argument as I was able to portray the owner as a “big money downtown guy” and my client was a “local boy” trying to make a living pouring asphalt. The truth is even though my client wore a cowboy hat, string tie and jeans he drove a high end Mercedes Benz.
Home Construction
I represented the General Contractor (GC) in a case (Anne Arundel County) brought by the homeowners (HO) who had paid the GC approximately 80% of the contract price for work done but upon learning that the GC did not possess a home improvement license not only did they not pay the balance but sued the GC for a return of all monies paid. HO filed a complaint attaching a motion for summary judgment claiming constructive trust. Had the HO prevailed at the motions hearing on the theory of constructive trust there would have been no coverage. We won the hearing and the motion for summary judgment was denied. Months later after bringing in third party subcontractors we were able to effectively negotiate a global settlement where the case was settled at 30% of the monies paid and the third parties contributed 45% of the settlement.
Highway
A subcontractor was hired to install guardrail and asphalt on a New York state highway project. Mother was droving with her 5 year old son when she fell asleep at the wheel and the vehicle went off the road down an embankment, flipped over rendering her son a ventilator dependent quadriplegic. Plaintiff sued the State of New York, the general contractor, the road engineer and the subcontractor. The plans and specifications called for an additional 100’ of guardrail that was not installed. Our motion for summary judgment was denied. The verdict was 57M yet we won on appeal as the trial judge was reversed as to the ruling on our motion for summary judgment. The other defendants had all settled out on the eve of trial for a total of 13M. This was a reported decision Church v San Juan Construction, 99 NY2d 104. There is a very interesting story about the dynamics of plaintiff counsel, AIG and how we ultimately paid zero dollars.
Electrocution
I represented the general contractor in a case that went to trial in Montgomery County, Md. where a crane operator (the employee of a sub) struck a high voltage line with his crane and was badly injured as a result. There were multiple parties and unfortunately it was one of those cases where fingers were being pointed by everyone at evryone. There were issues of plaintiff’s negligence, the employer’s negligence and the argument against the GC was failure to coordinate the trades and properly warn. The trial was half over and settled at that time.
Ocean Front Condominium
My client was the general contractor in the construction of a 20 story (this is a guess) in Ocean City Maryland. Each condominium had a concrete slab balcony with metal railings as opposed to a concrete wall on the balcony allowing owners to sit in their condo and not have their view blocked. The railings were secured with metal stanchions and over time water would penetrate thru the stanchion into the concrete slab eventually finding its way to the rebar. At that time in the construction industry rebar had not been covered with epoxy. The water caused rust which caused the rebar to expand which caused the face of the slabs to crack and concrete began to fall causing a safety issue. There were multiple parties and the focus of our defense was a design issue as opposed to workmanship.
Bridge
Landfill was selected by City of Baltimore and State of Maryland to be a repository for thousands of truck loads of dirt coming from the construction of Camden Yards Baseball Park. The playing field was being lowered 17’. Opening day was approaching and time was of the essence. The permit allowed dirt to be piled up to 40’ but the amount coming in quickly surpassed that elevation but the Department of Public Works told the Landfill to keep accepting the dirt. The landfill was immediately adjacent to the Patapsco River Bridge and when the Federal Bridge Inspectors were conducting their inspection (every 2 years) they observed significant cracking in the pilings. Their report to the City indicated an “active landfill” was causing downward pressure on the subterranean soil causing lateral movement of the subterranean soil thereby causing cracking of the pilings. Two months went by before the City engineer read the report and when he did he immediately went to the bridge saw worsening conditions, shut down the bridge as well as the landfill. The elevation of dirt at that point was 79’ and the new permit had not been signed by all department heads. A lawsuit was filed by Baltimore City arguing that we were strictly liable based up English law. They were right. However I begged Judge Heller for time to conduct discovery. She was close to granting the motion but did give me time. The City demanded title to the landfill and 2M in policy limits as the repair cost was 3M. I started deposing the field inspectors who said “downtown” told us to accept the dirt regardless of the elevation. I worked my way up to noting the Mayor’s deposition and indicated the Governor was next. We settled the case quietly for 1.7M and my client kept his Landfill. It operates still today.
Exterior Insulation Finish Systems (EIFS)
I represented the general contractor in a well know construction case here in Baltimore know as Harper House a high rise condominium in the Village of Cross Keys. As you head north on I-83 you pass it on your right. Many if not most of the residents had damages from water intrusion and EIFS was the focus of the case. However there were also issues as to maintenance by the Condo Association and its members, design by the architect and engineer as well as workmanship issues involving the trades. Most of the prominent downtown firms had a client in the case. I was involved in this case prior to my time at Travelers. Looking back there may have been opportunities to resolve the case before we did. I feel confident that defense costs easily surpassed the amounts paid in settlement which was in the millions.
Paving / Grading
A few moths ago I was able to resolve this case pending in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County with my client paying zero settlement dollars AND I WAS ABLE TO GET THE CASE SETTLED BEFORE DISCOBERY BEGAN. After meeting with my client and his crew and studying the plans and specs I had two conference calls with plaintiff counsel who gave me critical photographs and information and then I had a face to face meeting with my client’s subcontractor who had been blaming us. I completely opened my file sharing my view of the facts / strategy. After two hours counsel said she would speak to the carrier. A few weeks later the case settled with my client paying zero and defense costs were minimal as discovery had not begun. My client had asked its carrier Zurich if Caltrider could defend this case because they were one of my clients from my earlier life and Zurich agreed. Zurich was so pleased with the outcome they sent me a form to apply for consideration to be on their panel.
Exterior Insulation Finish Systems (EIFS)
I represented a general contractor in a case in Howard County again involving EIFS.
Underwater Tunnel
The EPA found the harbor in Boston to be “the most polluted harbor in the country.” They instructed the MWRA (Massachusetts Water Rights Authority) to build a 9 mile effluent outflow tunnel to take its raw sewage out to sea. Kiewit was the general contractor. There were 5 construction divers who had gone out to the end of the tunnel to work and the oxygen system was failing so they turned the jeep around and attempted to get out. Two died and three had brain damage. There was prejudgment interest of 12% (I believe) and the case was already a year old. We had already had a defense meeting and had to rent a hotel conference room near Logan to accommodate everyone as there were coverage towers with multiple coverage issues not to mention over a dozen parties. I cam up with the idea of (1) creating a pot of money to settle the case…this appealed to plaintiffs as a resolution appeared far off (2) I then obtained agreement that after the case was settled we would arbitrate whether the various contributions were appropriate given contract and liability issues (3) most importantly I was able to persuade the parties that if the arbitrator determined that someone underpaid their fair share they would be required to pay back to the others the amount they underpaid PLUS AN 18% PENALTY. As a result we did not need to arbitrate because those who contributed did not posture but put in a fair amount. In addition, there were some parties who did not contribute so after the settlement we (paid and chased) and recovered most of what we paid out. Our net was close to zero.
Roof Collapse
My client was The University of Maryland. The roofing system above the student union center was a steel grid and each individual grid square was filled with a concrete panel (weight probably a ton). Work was being done on the system for repairs / maintenance when one of the panels fell from the roof to the floor below striking a worker. I do not recall if he was killed or survived. The case involved multiple parties and was filed in Prince Georges County, Md.,
Water Intrusion
I am currently representing the general contractor in a case filed in Baltimore County, Md. where the homeowners (represented by Ober Kaler) are suing my client for 6M. I have third partied in 9 subcontractors and 2 other parties. There are a host of factual issues as well as contractual and coverage issues.