{"id":904316,"date":"2025-05-06T14:21:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T20:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904316"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:22:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T20:22:55","slug":"attorneys-fee-general-contract-may-be-entitled-despite-jury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorneys-fee-general-contract-may-be-entitled-despite-jury\/","title":{"rendered":"General Contract May Be Entitled to Award of Attorneys\u2019 Fees Against Subcontractor, Despite Jury\u2019s Apportionment of Damages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lindsay McCormick | <a href=\"https:\/\/marshalldennehey.com\/articles\/general-contract-may-be-entitled-award-attorneys%E2%80%99-fees-against-subcontractor-despite-jury\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Marshall Dennehey<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For construction defect litigation, many times we are called into action to defend a subcontractor who has been included as a third party to the primary dispute between an owner and a general contractor. Through the use of third-party complaints, general contractors are consistently including their implicated subcontractors within the primary litigation with the owner in an effort to \u201cpass-through\u201d any determined liability to its subs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An interesting issue that was recently brought up on appeal was whether a general contractor is entitled to an award of attorneys\u2019 fees against its subcontractor based on contractual prevailing party language if the jury apportions a greater percentage of damages to the general contractor rather than the implicated subcontractor.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;<em>Babin Builders and Development Inc. v. Quinones<\/em>, the trial court rejected the general contractors\u2019 motion for attorneys\u2019 fees against its stucco subcontractor because the jury had apportioned 60% of damages to the general contractor and 40% of damages to the stucco subcontractor. Therefore, the trial court determined that the general contractor was not the prevailing party and was not entitled to attorneys\u2019 fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On appeal, Florida\u2019s First District Court of Appeal reversed the trial court\u2019s ruling. The appellate court, instead, focused on the third-party claims asserted by the general contractor and whether there was a finding of breach of contract. It was determined that the jury did issue a finding for both breach of contract and violation of building code counts on behalf of the stucco subcontractor and, further, there was no finding that the general contractor contributed to these breaches. Therefore, despite a greater percentage of damages being allocated to the general contractor, that was not the controlling factor. Instead, the issue of attorneys\u2019 fees was limited to the third-party claims only. Because the general contractor prevailed in the breach of contract and building code violations claims, the District Court reversed the trial court\u2019s order and remanded the matter for an entry of attorneys\u2019 fees incurred on the third-party claims only.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is important to pay attention to such nuances in interpretation of contract language, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/understanding-contract-payment-provisions\/\">attorneys\u2019 fees provisions<\/a> in considering risks and exposure.\u00a0<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lindsay McCormick | Marshall Dennehey For construction defect litigation, many times we are called into action to defend a subcontractor who has been included as a third party to the primary dispute between an owner and a general contractor. Through the use of third-party complaints, general contractors are consistently including their implicated subcontractors within the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorneys-fee-general-contract-may-be-entitled-despite-jury\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">General Contract May Be Entitled to Award of Attorneys\u2019 Fees Against Subcontractor, Despite Jury\u2019s Apportionment of Damages<\/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],"tags":[9895,528,224],"class_list":["post-904316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","tag-advise-consult","tag-attorney-fees","tag-construction-contract","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 Contract May Be Entitled to Award of Attorneys\u2019 Fees Against Subcontractor, Despite Jury\u2019s Apportionment of Damages - Advise &amp; 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