{"id":903953,"date":"2025-02-12T14:58:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T21:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=903953"},"modified":"2025-02-12T15:03:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T22:03:05","slug":"change-order-work-and-owners-notice-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/change-order-work-and-owners-notice-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"General Contractor Defeats Owner\u2019s Notice Argument and Prevails in Seattle Condo Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>John Mark Goodman | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/2025\/02\/general-contractor-defeats-owners-notice-argument-and-prevails-in-seattle-condo-dispute\/?utm_source=Bradley+Arant+Boult+Cummings+LLP+-+BuildSmart&amp;utm_campaign=7f869e98bc-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_b504caf31b-7f869e98bc-78863422\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">BuildSmart<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Washington Court of Appeals recently affirmed a jury verdict and $30 million judgment for general contractor Skanska. The case involves the construction of the 41-story\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nexusseattle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Nexus condominium tower<\/a>\u00a0in downtown Seattle.\u00a0As is often the case, one of the central issues was whether Skanska was entitled to be paid for alleged changes to its scope of work.\u00a0The owner made a familiar argument: Skanska had not followed the contractual procedures for giving notice and obtaining authorization to perform <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/change-order-importance-on-construction-claims\/\">change order<\/a> work but had instead relied on more informal communications, including oral directives, emails, and meeting minutes.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Court of Appeals rejected those arguments finding sufficient evidence for the jury to have concluded that the parties agreed to modify or waive strict compliance with the formal requirements of the contract.&nbsp;This evidence included the owner\u2019s practice of regularly approving change order work that did not follow the contract requirements.&nbsp;&nbsp;Based on the parties\u2019 course of conduct the court found sufficient evidence to support the jury\u2019s award in Skanska\u2019s favor. In addition to recovering its unpaid balance, Skanska was also awarded interest and attorneys\u2019 fees as the prevailing party, including its appellate attorney fees.&nbsp;The court remanded the case for a recalculation of prejudgment interest on certain change order work but otherwise affirmed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A copy of the court\u2019s decision is available\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2025\/02\/D2-58950-8-II-Unpublished-Opinion.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Republished with permission. The article, \u201cGeneral Contractor Defeats Owner\u2019s Notice Argument and Prevails in Seattle Condo Dispute\u201d was originally published on BuildSmart by Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP. Copyright 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Mark Goodman | BuildSmart The Washington Court of Appeals recently affirmed a jury verdict and $30 million judgment for general contractor Skanska. The case involves the construction of the 41-story\u00a0Nexus condominium tower\u00a0in downtown Seattle.\u00a0As is often the case, one of the central issues was whether Skanska was entitled to be paid for alleged changes&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/change-order-work-and-owners-notice-argument\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">General Contractor Defeats Owner\u2019s Notice Argument and Prevails in Seattle Condo Dispute<\/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":[14],"tags":[9895,90,12],"class_list":["post-903953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-2","tag-advise-consult","tag-change-orders","tag-construction","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>General Contractor Defeats Owner\u2019s Notice Argument and Prevails in Seattle Condo Dispute - Advise &amp; 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