Reager & Adler, PC Articles and Resources

Statute of Repose: The Tool That Extricated Local Contractor From Lawsuit

jshull — Wed, 27 Mar 2025 18:08:32 GMT

When an object or a person is at rest or in a state of stillness it or he/she is said to be in repose. If one were to take a drive down Cameron Street in Harrisburg, by what was once the thriving business known as Henry's Tire Shop, what you would see is much of what used to be part of the McFarland Apartments parking lot, complete with a formerly parked car, piled up and lying in repose in the tire shop. It was May 5 of 2016 when a catastrophic collapse of the parking lot perched above Henry's, was ...

Pennsylvania Waves Goodbye to CASPA Waiver

jshull — Thu, 28 Jun 2025 14:25:52 GMT

When in 1994, the Pennsylvania legislature initially passed prompt payment protection for contractors and subcontractors by enacting the Contractor and Subcontractor Payment Act, commonly referred to as CASPA, construction contractors, particularly those acting in subcontractor roles, presumed that this legislative pronouncement preserved forever their rights to receive prompt payment for their work. Unfortunately, in the years that followed many subcontractors, in reviewing their subcontract documents, were surprised to find provisions whereby their rights to seek remedies under CASPA were extinguished. Threatened by the potential complete annihilation of their rights under CASPA at the whim of a contracting partner, many contracting ...

Another Important Heads-Up If You Do Business With The Pennsylvania Department of General Services

jshull — Thu, 12 Oct 2024 17:54:01 GMT

There is an old adage that those who do business with the government do so at their own peril. This would apply to construction contractors doing business with the Pennsylvania Department of General Services. Contractors who have performed work for Pennsylvania taxpayers through the Department of General Services are quite familiar with the concept that DGS designates each and every term contained in the agreement between the contractor and DGS; and that these terms are not negotiable. Not satisfied with this, DGS has recently flexed its powers by inserting itself into the contracts between contractors and their subcontractors by designating ...

Recent Changes to the AIA Form Contract Documents

jshull — Wed, 23 Aug 2024 14:06:05 GMT

Like the United States Census Bureau's counting of the American people once every decennial, so too does the American Institute of Architects introduce new versions of its form contract documents. Earlier this year, the AIA introduced to the construction industry several new versions of its form construction documents. The AIA has been issuing new and revised versions of its form documents since 1888. These documents have been evolving over this near 130 year period to include and acknowledge changes in industry technology, construction practices and case law involving litigated construction issues. The AIA documents are loosely organized among “families” depending ...

Pennsylvania State Construction Notices Directory: A Call to Action

jshull — Wed, 31 May 2025 18:33:40 GMT

Over the past few months I have written several articles and presented several seminars about the changes to the Pennsylvania Mechanic’s Lien Law, specifically concerning the new requirements for construction owners, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers and the Pennsylvania State Construction Notices Directory. Under the amendment, the Pennsylvania legislature, among other things, directed the Pennsylvania Department of General Services to build out the interactive electronic directory for access and use by those involved in construction projects.

The new requirements under the amendment to the Mechanic’s Lien Law became effective January 1, 2017. Whether they read my article or attended a seminar, ...

Pennsylvania State Construction Notices Directory To Go Live

jshull — Tue, 20 Dec 2024 16:58:33 GMT

As a follow-up to previous articles, we are again reminding clients that the requirement for subcontractors and suppliers to file Notices of Furnishing in order to preserve their mechanic’s lien rights begins December 29, 2024 based on information provided by the Pennsylvania Department of General Services. This new requirement established by an amendment to the Mechanic’s Lien Statute (Act 142 of 2014) requires subcontractors and suppliers to access a web-based directory, to be known as the State Construction Notices Directory, which has recently been completed by the Department of General Services. Subcontractors and suppliers who wish to maintain rights to ...

“Plumber’s Work,” Now Clear as Mud

jshull — Thu, 01 Dec 2024 19:36:26 GMT

One would think that experienced contractors, construction managers, and project engineers could easily explain what plumbing work is. For sure, any first-year plumbing apprentice could precisely recite a definition of plumbing work, right? For just as surely as water flows downhill, it is a plumber who installs sewer, water, and drain pipes. Well, a recent Pennsylvania trial court decision involving the application of the Commonwealth's Separations Act shows that it is not that simple. A plumbing contractor, Wheels Mechanical Contracting and Supplier, Inc. (“Wheels Mechanical”), recently brought an action seeking an injunction from the Allegheny County ...

Overtime Changes Coming

jshull — Fri, 03 Jun 2025 13:40:06 GMT

President Obama this past week made final the Department of Labor's proposed rule making more than 4 million additional workers eligible for overtime pay. The major change of the new rule requiring payment to employees at the rate of 1 1/2 times the employee's regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a work week is the change in the threshold salary amount triggering the overtime pay requirement. The threshold salary, which has not been updated since 2004, is currently $23,660 per year or $455 a week. The new rate set by the Obama administration, effective December ...

Court Further Confines CASPA

jshull — Fri, 10 Jul 2025 17:18:20 GMT

After more than 20 years since its passage, the Pennsylvania courts are still being presented with novel case scenarios implicating the breadth of the applicability of the Pennsylvania Contractor and Subcontractor Payment Act (73 P.S. §501, et seq.), commonly referred to as CASPA, and are still defining the borders and periphery of the coverage of the Act.

In the recent case of Clipper Pipe and Service, Inc. v. Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., involving a claim by a subcontractor against a general contractor and its surety that the subcontractor was entitled to protections and remedies of CASPA for the ...

Adhesion: Don’t Get Stuck

jshull — Tue, 14 Apr 2025 19:51:41 GMT

“Adhesion” is defined as the act of sticking or attaching to something. Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2015. Web. 13 March 2015. Under Pennsylvania law, contracts of adhesion are standard form contracts prepared by one party, to be signed by the party in the weaker position, usually a consumer, who adheres to the contract with little choice about the terms. Romero v. Allstate Insurance Co., 1 F. Supp. 3d 319 (E.D. Pa. 2014).

Recently, we were involved with litigation where one of the parties signed a contract with a term similar to the following:

"To the extent the Buyer commences legal proceedings against ...

Public Officials Cannot “privatize” Their Communications

jshull — Fri, 20 Feb 2025 19:07:02 GMT

A Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania decision dated February 5, 2025 has provided citizens and public officials with further clarification as to what information constitutes a “public record” and, therefore, is accessible to citizens under the recently amended Pennsylvania Right to Know Law, and what remains private information and, therefore, inaccessible to citizens of the Commonwealth. In the case of Paint Township v. Robert L. Clark, the Court was asked to consider whether a citizen’s request for the cell phone records of a Township Supervisor for a cell phone owned by the Township Supervisor was accessible under the Pennsylvania Right ...

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Reaffirms Statutory Employer Status for General Contractors

jshull — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 19:34:36 GMT

The Pennsylvania legislature, in passing the Worker’s Compensation Act more than 100 years ago, sought to protect injured workers by ensuring that insurance would be available to workers who were injured during the course of their employment. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania has amended the Act several times since its original passage in 1915, and courts have been reinterpreting the amendments as work related injury lawsuits have been brought over time. As part of the Act, the legislature created a statutory construct whereby general contractors would bear secondary liability for the payment of worker’s compensation benefits to injured ...

Insurer's Duty to Defend Contractor Expanded

jshull — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 15:23:31 GMT

In December, the Pennsylvania Superior Court decided a case that could have an impact on the coverage available to contractors under commercial general liability insurance policies. Often, when an owner sues a contractor for faulty workmanship, a contractor’s ability to receive coverage and a defense from its insurance carrier is dependent upon whether the allegedly faulty workmanship is an “occurrence” as defined in the insurance policy. If it is not an occurrence there is no coverage and the contractor is on its own when it comes to defending a lawsuit and paying any damages that may result.

In Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court, in Kvaerner Metals v. ...

Reager & Adler Lawyers Win Decision for Supplier Client

jshull — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:30:05 GMT

In a case recently argued before the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, Reager & Adler prevailed on behalf of a supplier client who had provided substantial amounts of material to a public project for which it was left unpaid. Payment to contractors, subcontractors and suppliers on a public project in Pennsylvania is governed by the Commonwealth Procurement Code. Contractors who have contracts with public owners must provide both performance and payment bonds from surety companies licensed to do business in Pennsylvania. The performance bond protects the public owner in the event the contractor fails to perform; while the payment bond is ...

Presentation - The Pennsylvania Public Works Employment Verification Act

jshull — Fri, 11 Jan 2025 13:44:33 GMT

Earlier in 2012, Tom Williams, a shareholder in Reager & Adler and a member of the firm's Litigation team, presented a seminar entitled:

The Pennsylvania Public Works Employment Verification Act

Click the link above to view the PowerPoint Presentation for that seminar.

Thomas O. Williams, Esquire

TWilliams@ReagerAdlerPC.com

717-763-1383