You may be seeing a rise in owners and contractors demanding the use of wrap-up insurance programs on projects. While wrap-ups may allow for some cost savings, you still need to maintain your base coverage and make sure completed operations coverage is in place. What are Wrap-Ups? Wrap-ups are blanket insurance programs that cover an entire project. They generally come in two forms: owner-controlled or contractor-controlled. Wrap-ups historically combine liability [...]

Most construction contracts require that the subcontractor list the general contractor as an additional insured. But, from a practical and coverage standpoint, what does that mean? When a general contractor is listed as an additional insured, the subcontractors insurance carrier owes the general contractor a duty of indemnity and defense for any vicarious liability the general contractor may incur as a result of the subcontractor’s negligence. The subcontractor’s carrier may [...]

The question of whether a construction defect is covered by commercial general liability (“CGL”) insurance is a hotly contested issue throughout the United States. A recent construction law article identifies four states that have passed statutes to require construction defect coverage under CGL insurance policies. The article may be found here. The states that have passed statutes are Colorado, Hawaii, Arkansas and South Carolina. The Colorado statute creates a presumption [...]

I have enjoyed the new show Longmire on A&E. One episode the other night involved a crooked social service worker who was taking kickbacks for removing kids from Native American families and placing them with Caucasian adoptive parents. I then read an article in Engineering News Record about a construction company engaged to build a county’s privately developed and operated juvenile justice facilities that was bribing judges to incarcerate more [...]