Posts
Health Cost Information – Making Consumers Care
This is a report about a conference organized by Massachusetts State officials to provide more health care cost information in the effort to cabin the rise in those costs. Empowering Health Care Consumers – A Community Conversation II October 22, 2013 UMass Medical School / MA Office of Consumer Affairs & Business Regulation Chuck Cobb… Read More »Health Cost Information – Making Consumers Care
Workers Comp Immunity Thwarts Indemnity
Massachusetts rejects all efforts to bring employer into lawsuit by injured employee. Workers comp immunity thwarts indemnity. FRACO PRODUCTS, LTD. v BOSTONIAN MASONRY84 Mass App Ct 296 (2013) FACTS On a construction project, a masonry subcontractor rented a mast climber from Fraco. Employees of the mason were on the equipment when it toppled… Read More »Workers Comp Immunity Thwarts Indemnity
Expensive Attack on Agreed Process for Appraiser Fails
STATE ROOM, INC. v MA-60 STATE ASSOCAITES LLC 84 Mass App Ct 244 (2013) FACTS A lease set rent for the option term beginning 2010 to be determined by three appraisers. By the agreement, the landlord chose one appraiser, the tenant chose one and those two, chose a third. The tenant found what it called… Read More »Expensive Attack on Agreed Process for Appraiser Fails
P3 Construction Lawyers Meeting
P3’s and Beyond – the Next Decade of Construction Projects Report by Chuck Cobb on ABA Construction Industry Forum September 2013 Meeting Construction lawyers from around the US gathered for the ABA Construction industry forum’s meeting with presentations about P3’s or Public Private Partnerships. Public owners are looking to ways to finance projects in an… Read More »P3 Construction Lawyers Meeting
Additional Insured Status 2013 Update – Require It Clearly
Many construction contracts require subcontractors to secure General Liability “additional insured” status for the construction managers hiring them. With this protection, if the CM or Owner gets pulled into a suit due to the subcontractor’s negligence, the sub’s insurer will protect those upstream parties. Insurers for subcontractors want not to have to provide any greater… Read More »Additional Insured Status 2013 Update – Require It Clearly
Court Flattens Hollister Porch by Upholding Arch Access Board Ruling
J.M. HOLLISTER LLC v ARCHITECTURAL ACCESS BOARD 83 Ma App Ct 513 (2013) FACTS Hollister sold clothes from a store in a mall. The retailer replaced the accessible mall level entrance with two adjacent doorways and it constructed a ‘porch’ two steps up and back down leading into the store. On either side of the… Read More »Court Flattens Hollister Porch by Upholding Arch Access Board Ruling
Healthy Spouses of Sick Spouses – Mass Bans Emlployers’ Discrimination
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court now recognizes claims for “associational discrimination” against employers who provide family health insurance and who fire healthy employees with very sick spouses when the firing is motivated by a hope to reduce health insurance premiums. The case Flagg v AliMed Inc. involved a worker whose wife had a brain tumor. The… Read More »Healthy Spouses of Sick Spouses – Mass Bans Emlployers’ Discrimination
Coordination – a New, Needed Role
Mechanical and structural engineers were among the first to use BIM. CM’s saw this and “rushed to claim they had the same capabilities”. Who leads, who owns coordination on a project using BIM? The need to coordinate the design engineered plans and the work of the trade contractors has been an interface where roles are… Read More »Coordination – a New, Needed Role
BIM Wash & the Many Construction Buckets
Building Information Modeling (BIM) has established its usefulness but it awaits a usability breakthrough. Some feel http://bit.ly/12O08Vl that even as BIM (computerized building plan) tools are increasingly used, that BIM outcomes are too often disappointing. The disillusionment could be the result of overhyped promises. BIM is a powerful tool but the construction industry’s use of… Read More »BIM Wash & the Many Construction Buckets
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Charles W. Cobb
Attorney at Law
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Newton MA 02460
ccobb@silverlakelegal.com
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