A case that has been closely followed by oil and gas and other interests which involves groundwater disputes has now been decided by the Texas Supreme Court. In Coyote Lake Ranch, LLC, v. The City of Lubbock, decided on May 27, the Court held that the “accommodation doctrine,” a doctrine developed…
In U.S. Department of Labor More Than Doubles Minimum Salary Levels for FLSA Overtime Exemptions, Pillsbury attorneys Julia Judish, Rebecca Carr Rizzo and John Scalia discuss the U.S. Department of Labor’s much-anticipated Final Rule amending the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations implementing the exemption from minimum wage and overtime pay for…
Did you know that California’s Contractors’ State License Law, Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 7000 et seq., requires licensees to report various information to the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) “within 90 days” of the effective date or event? Failure to report required events or information could result in the automatic suspension…
Our clients asked and we responded. From planning to disposition, Pillsbury’s Development Life Cycle Map illustrates the capabilities of Pillsbury attorneys to represent clients as they face eleven key stops along The Path. Designed as a quick reference, our Development Life Cycle Map is available in hard copy and digitally. Photo: …
In Awardee Protests: A New Horizon?, my colleague John Jensen and I discuss a new decision from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims — National Air Cargo Group , Inc., v. U.S. — that opens the door to the possibility of a bid protest by an awardee under a multiple-award indefinite…
Builders and contractors may be interested to learn that, in the past few days, the Supreme Courts of Texas and Colorado, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit have issued significant rulings addressing the separation of powers at the state and federal level. An Ordinance’s Overreach On…
Roughly two weeks before annual National Stand-Down Week (May 2-6), New York’s Appellate Division, Second Department, in Vitale v. Astoria Energy II, LLC, affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a worker’s personal injury claim resulting from a fall at a construction site. Specifically, the Appellate Division held that Vitale failed to create an…
Join in the National Safety Stand-Down May 2-6, 2016. The purpose of the stand-down is to raise awareness about preventing fall hazards in the construction industry. Fatalities caused by falls from elevation continue to be a leading cause of death for or serious injury to construction workers. The U.S. Department of Labor,…
California Assembly Bill 2699 (Gonzalez) is a bill to watch if you are a home improvement contractor that installs solar energy systems or, for that matter, a contractor in California. AB 2699 would, among other things, require the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) to develop a “solar energy system disclosure document”…
In A Double Standard in Construction Defect Coverage Cases?, I discuss the recent decision of Allied Property & Casualty Insurance Co. v. Metro North Condominium Associates. This decision highlights why only a minority of courts still hold to the fiction that construction defects cannot give rise to an “occurrence” covered…