{"id":886207,"date":"2015-12-22T19:19:08","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T02:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=886207"},"modified":"2015-12-22T19:19:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T02:19:08","slug":"limitations-of-liability-the-elephant-in-the-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/limitations-of-liability-the-elephant-in-the-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Limitations of Liability \u2013 The Elephant in the Room"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gregory Faulkner | Robinson Cole | October 14, 2015<\/p>\n<p><em>This is the first\u00a0post in the\u00a0four-part series \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/limitations-of-liability-scenario-one-waivers-of-consequential-damages\/\" target=\"_blank\">Limitations of liability<\/a>\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/limitations-of-liability-scenario-two-no-damages-for-delays-clauses\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Elephant in the Room<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One or more of the following scenarios takes place in my office virtually every day:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Scenario One:\u00a0 <\/strong>Owner client sends me an industry form construction contract and asks me to take a look, after the project has been bid but prior to execution (or worse, after a problem has arisen on the project).\u00a0 The contract contains a \u201cstandard\u201d waiver of consequential damages.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scenario Two:\u00a0 <\/strong>Contractor client has bid on a project and has asked me to \u201cbless\u201d its contract with the Owner (or worse the project is already behind schedule), and the contract contains a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/ohio-appellate-court-enforces-notice-provision-denies-contractor-delay-damages\/\" target=\"_blank\">no damages for delay<\/a>\u201d clause.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scenario Three:\u00a0 <\/strong>Subcontractor client sends me a template subcontract form that it received after pricing a private project for a contractor.\u00a0 The subcontract includes a \u201cpay if paid\u201d clause, and prohibits recovery of costs except to the extent that the contractor recovers from the owner (regardless of who is at fault).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Inevitably, when I flag these clauses for my clients, they tell me that they either didn\u2019t contemplate such risks when they first got involved, or they don\u2019t anticipate that these clauses will present an issue for them.\u00a0 It\u2019s understandable.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Who thinks about claims or problems when they\u2019re just getting started on a new project or a new relationship?\u00a0And if they are thinking worst case scenarios, who wants to call attention to the elephant in the room \u2013 that they want their exposure limited in the event the project does go bad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>However, over the last few years, parties to construction contracts have become much more\u00a0bold in raising these issues. Rightfully so, as they are critical, but I have witnessed some significant misunderstandings as to what these clauses actually mean.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s time to talk about the elephants in the room, and to&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionlawzone.com\/2015\/10\/limitations-of-liability-the-elephant-in-the-room-first-in-a-four-part-series\/\" target=\"_blank\">To finish reading this article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gregory Faulkner | Robinson Cole | October 14, 2015 This is the first\u00a0post in the\u00a0four-part series \u201cLimitations of liability\u2014The Elephant in the Room.\u201d One or more of the following scenarios takes place in my office virtually every day: Scenario One:\u00a0 Owner client sends me an industry form construction contract and asks me to take a&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/limitations-of-liability-the-elephant-in-the-room\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Limitations of Liability \u2013 The Elephant in the Room<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[224,11,9000],"class_list":["post-886207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","category-insurance-claims","tag-construction-contract","tag-insurance-claim","tag-limitations-of-liability","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Limitations of Liability \u2013 The Elephant in the Room - Advise &amp; 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