{"id":904345,"date":"2025-05-14T14:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T20:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904345"},"modified":"2025-05-14T14:38:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T20:38:20","slug":"construction-contract-dispute-youve-made-your-bed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-contract-dispute-youve-made-your-bed\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019ve Made Your Bed\u2026Maybe\u00a0Don\u2019t Lie in It (Yet)!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Daniel Lund III | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lexology.com\/library\/detail.aspx?g=13cb2718-ac95-41f8-b0dc-b023b76a0cf9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Phelps Dunbar<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal was faced with a residential <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/preventing-and-resolving-construction-disputes-types-of-damages-in-construction-contracts\/\">construction contract<\/a> dispute concerning the construction of a new home. Pivotal to the dispute was an occupancy clause in the general contract, which declared: &#8220;Owner agrees not to occupy the Home until contractor is paid in full.&#8221; Yet, the owner moved into the home even though the work was alleged to be poor in certain aspects and the final payment had not been made to the general contractor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hence, when a dispute concerning the construction project arose, the contractor argued that the fact of the owner\u2019s actual occupancy signaled total satisfied the contractor\u2019s contractual obligations \u2013 as the occupancy clause implied acceptance of the work and completion of payment terms. Nonetheless, the lower court initially ruled in favor of the homeowner and against the general contractor, awarding her $23,211.25 for breach of contract, citing substandard workmanship and unpaid subcontractor liens. The general contractor \u2013 which had filed a counterclaim for unpaid amounts under the contract, a claim which was dismissed by the trial court \u2013 appealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On appeal, the court affirmed the award to the homeowner for poor workmanship and payment of a lien claimant but reversed the trial court&#8217;s dismissal of the general contractor\u2019s counterclaim. The appellate court held that the homeowner had legally breached the construction contract by occupying the home without fulfilling the payment condition. Consequently, the court awarded the contractor the amount of the unpaid contract balance, to be offset against the amount owed to the homeowner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cases.justia.com\/louisiana\/fifth-circuit-court-of-appeal\/2025-24-ca-440.pdf?ts=1744392099\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><em>Boudreaux v. Jackson, 24-440 (La. App. 5 Cir. 04\/09\/25); 2025 La. App. LEXIS 672<\/em><\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Lund III | Phelps Dunbar The Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal was faced with a residential construction contract dispute concerning the construction of a new home. Pivotal to the dispute was an occupancy clause in the general contract, which declared: &#8220;Owner agrees not to occupy the Home until contractor is paid in full.&#8221;&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-contract-dispute-youve-made-your-bed\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">You\u2019ve Made Your Bed\u2026Maybe\u00a0Don\u2019t Lie in It (Yet)!<\/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":[9895,224,6602],"class_list":["post-904345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction-contract","tag-louisiana","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>You\u2019ve Made Your Bed\u2026Maybe\u00a0Don\u2019t Lie in It (Yet)! 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