Posts
Court to Hollister – Tear Down That Entryway Stair
The staircase entry to a Massachusetts Hollister retail shop was found to be an architectural access barrier. Take it down the Board said. The store appealed, arguing that people with physical challenges could easily get in through another, near-by entrance. A brief and commentary about the decision in Massachusetts Appeals Court is here. The store… Read More »Court to Hollister – Tear Down That Entryway Stair
The Bewildering Economic Loss Rule
If you must know more about “the economic loss rule”, … it is rule is based on the idea that lawsuits between people who have no contract with each other should have some limits. It prohibits recovery of “economic damages” where negligence (rather than breach of an agreed upon contract) is alleged to have caused… Read More »The Bewildering Economic Loss Rule
Condo Assn Recovers from Negligent Developer
Developers' risks in Massachusetts now include suits from the Condominium Association over negligent construction or design of common areas. Bewildering "economic loss rule" not applied. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court just decided Wyman v Ayer Properties LLC 469 Mass 64 (2014) deciding that Condominium associations can sue builders who construct common areas negligently. My write up… Read More »Condo Assn Recovers from Negligent Developer
Court Orders MA Lawyer Suspect to Enter Key Unscrambling His Computer Data
FACTS A lawyer accused of printing up phony records, prompting home sellers to pay him instead of the mortgage lenders, encrypted his computers by a product called DriveCrypt Plus. Police arrested him after he retrieved what he believed to be over $1.3M of good funds from real estate closings. The police showed up at his… Read More »Court Orders MA Lawyer Suspect to Enter Key Unscrambling His Computer Data
Punitive award stripped where retaliation but no actual damages found
What kind of retaliatory conduct in employment supports a $1.1M punitive verdict? Not this kind. KIELY v TERADYNE, INC. 85 Mass App Ct 431 (2014) FACTS Kiely worked for Teradyne for decades and her job duties advanced from equipment repair to administrative work. Kiely and two male co-workers were the last of 31… Read More »Punitive award stripped where retaliation but no actual damages found
Court Says Feds Can’t Set Price for Peak Shaving Negawatts
Energy cases often start shoving matches between Federal and State’s rights groups. Each State’s Department of Public Utilities regulates those markets – except when the Federal Government’s regulations trump the States’. The Decision A Federal Appeals Court sided against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in a May 2014 case, deciding that FERC could not… Read More »Court Says Feds Can’t Set Price for Peak Shaving Negawatts
Collaborating on Prefab MEP’s for Biopharma
May 27, 2014 Boston Society of Architects // BIM Roundtable featured a talk by Construction Management project teams from Skanska and Consigli who implemented a modularized MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) system on a biopharma project for Novartis in Cambridge. The system, ringing each floor supplied utilities in predetermined pathways. The HVAC ductwork, plumbing pipe… Read More »Collaborating on Prefab MEP’s for Biopharma
Anti SLAPP law requires dismissal of challenge to Union’s financing suit against town over open shop contract award.
Hanover v NE Regional Council of Carpenters 467 Mass 587 (2014) Anti SLAPP law requires dismissal of challenge to Union’s financing suit against town over open shop contract award. FACTS The Town of Hanover bid a high school construction project to open shop contractors - without requiring that bidders be signatory to trade unions. A… Read More »Anti SLAPP law requires dismissal of challenge to Union’s financing suit against town over open shop contract award.
Building code violations -evidence of negligence? Only sometimes.
If someone gets hurt on your property does every building code violation come in as evidence of negligence? A recently decided Massachusetts case Sheehan v Weaver 467 Mass 734 (2014) considered the question and said it depends on the commercial or residential characteristics of the part of the property involved. William Sheehan lived in a… Read More »Building code violations -evidence of negligence? Only sometimes.
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