{"id":904416,"date":"2025-06-03T16:43:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904416"},"modified":"2025-06-03T16:43:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:43:56","slug":"cost-to-complete-in-construction-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/cost-to-complete-in-construction-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Affirms $1 Nominal Damage Award in Wind Farm Construction Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>John Mark Goodman | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/2025\/05\/court-affirms-1-nominal-damage-award-in-wind-farm-construction-dispute\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">BuildSmart<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The general contractor on the 60-turbine wind farm project in Good Hope, Illinois, is entitled to collect a whopping $1 on its cost-to-complete claim against its terminated subcontractor. We previously reported on the court\u2019s entry of summary judgment in favor of the general contractor, Black and Veatch Construction (BVCI),\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/2023\/10\/court-affirms-dismissal-of-subcontractors-wrongful-termination-counterclaim-and-clarifies-scope-of-upcoming-trial-on-damages\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/2023\/04\/no-written-notice-of-delay-big-problem-court-sides-with-contractor-in-termination-dispute\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.\u00a0That order found that BVCI properly terminated its subcontractor, The Boldt Company, who was liable for damages in an amount to be determined by the jury.\u00a0After the three-week jury trial, the jury awarded BVCI nominal damages in the amount of $1.\u00a0Dissatisfied with the result, BVCI moved to set aside the verdict as against the weight of the evidence.\u00a0U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood denied that motion in an opinion released last week. \u00a0Her opinion provides insight into the jury\u2019s decision to award nominal damages and offers valuable lessons for contractors seeking to recover cost-to-complete damages following termination of a subcontractor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a reminder, breach-of-contract damages generally seek to place an aggrieved party in the position they would have been in had the contract been performed. In cases where a subcontractor is terminated before completion due to defective performance, the general measure of damages is the difference between the reasonable cost to complete work and the subcontract price.&nbsp;Here, BVCI\u2019s alleged cost to complete was $38.9 million compared to a subcontract price of just $15.4 million.&nbsp;With overhead and profit, BVCI\u2019s total damage figure based on its costs to complete was $29.4 million.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court\u2019s recent opinion identifies a number of reasons why the jury could have reasonably concluded that BVCI failed to meet its burden of proving it was entitled to this amount.&nbsp;For example, BVCI\u2019s alleged costs to complete totaling $39 million were based on two cost codes that were set up after Boldt\u2019s termination.&nbsp;The jury heard evidence about numerous cost-coding errors that resulted in $17.7 million in project costs being transferred into a new cost code.&nbsp;The jury may also have questioned the reasonableness of BVCI\u2019s costs to complete, which were over 2.5 times Boldt\u2019s original subcontract price of $15.4 million.&nbsp;The biggest reason for that increase was BVCI\u2019s decision to self-perform the turbine-erection work even though (1) it had never self-performed that kind of work before and (2) there were subcontractors available who could have done the work.&nbsp;The court reasoned that the jury could have reasonably refused to hold Boldt liable for BVCI\u2019s costs of learning how to do the erection work \u201con the fly\u201d instead of waiting for an experienced subcontractor to become available.&nbsp;The jury also heard evidence about BVCI\u2019s inefficiencies in completing the work, including a retrospective \u201cpost-mortem\u201d analysis by a BVCI employee that identified a number of issues with BVCI\u2019s performance on the project.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court summarized its view of the evidence and holding as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>In sum, BVCI went all in on a theory of damages that supported only a single number\u2014approximately $38.9 million\u2014as BVCI\u2019s costs to complete Boldt\u2019s scope of work. The jury was asked to&nbsp;calculate that figure by relying on numbers that BVCI assigned to Boldt based on subjective cost codes of questionable accuracy. As proof of the reasonableness of those costs, BVCI introduced the testimony of an expert who offered relatively threadbare opinions based on a process that he did not describe with any real specificity. Given the concerns surrounding both BVCI\u2019s numbers and its expert\u2019s review, it was rational for the jury to decide that either or both were untrustworthy. While absolute certainty of the amount of damages is not required, if the jury determined that it could not even reasonably approximate BVCI\u2019s damages with the evidence provided, then it properly awarded nominal damages. Accordingly, the jury\u2019s verdict that there was insufficient evidence for it to determine the fair and reasonable amount of BVCI\u2019s damages was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The court went on to reject BVCI\u2019s challenges to various evidentiary rulings and denied its motion for a new trial. A copy of the court\u2019s opinion is located\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildsmartbradley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2025\/05\/BVCI-v.-Boldt.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, \u201cCourt Affirms $1 Nominal Damage Award in Wind Farm Construction 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 general contractor on the 60-turbine wind farm project in Good Hope, Illinois, is entitled to collect a whopping $1 on its cost-to-complete claim against its terminated subcontractor. We previously reported on the court\u2019s entry of summary judgment in favor of the general contractor, Black and Veatch Construction (BVCI),\u00a0here\u00a0and\u00a0here.\u00a0That order&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/cost-to-complete-in-construction-dispute\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Court Affirms $1 Nominal Damage Award in Wind Farm Construction 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":[9],"tags":[9895,158,224,12164],"class_list":["post-904416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","tag-advise-consult","tag-breach-of-contract","tag-construction-contract","tag-cost-to-complete","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>Court Affirms $1 Nominal Damage Award in Wind Farm Construction Dispute - Advise &amp; 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