Dallas Construction Lawyer Archives

Are Your Arbitration Provisions Enforceable?

by Jason Cagle

January 24, 2023

It is common for construction contracts to contain provisions requiring the parties to submit any claims arising out of the contracts to arbitration. Courts tend to enforce such provisions vigorously. However, there are certain situations where courts will decline to enforce arbitration provisions. Three recent cases from the Texas courts illustrate some of these situations.

The first situation involves an unsuccessful attempt to enforce an arbitration provision against the employee of a subcontractor. V3 Constr. Co., LLC v. Butler, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 1152 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Feb. 11, 2021, pet. denied). The general contractor hired a testing company to perform inspections on the jobsite. The parties’ subcontract contained a broad arbitration provision. While working on the jobsite, the testing company’s employee fell off a scaffold and was injured. The employee sued the contractor, claiming its negligence caused his injuries. The general contractor asked the court to compel the employee to submit his claims to arbitration. The court denied the request. Although the testing company signed the arbitration agreement, its employee had not. There are ways in which non-signatories to an arbitration agreement can be compelled to arbitrate, but they did not apply to the employee’s personal-injury claims. For example, the employee’s claims were not based on a right under the subcontract, but rather the contractor’s alleged failure to maintain a safe jobsite under common law. The take-away from this case is that arbitration provisions might not be enforceable against individuals that did not sign the agreement, even if they work for companies that did sign the agreement. It is important to have other measures in place to reduce the risk of liability for such claims, such as obtaining liability insurance.

The second situation involves a company’s failure to bind a customer with an arbitration agreement sent after the transaction had occurred. Nationwide Coin & Bullion Res., Inc. v. Ciarlone, 2022 Tex. App. LEXIS 1721 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] Mar. 15, 2022, no pet. h.). A representative of a company which sells coins spoke over the phone with a customer about making a purchase. The representative and the customer agreed to the price of the coins, the customer mailed the company a check, and the company had the coins delivered. The package included an invoice with an arbitration provision on the back. When a dispute arose concerning the coins, the customer filed a lawsuit and the company attempted to enforce the arbitration provision. The court rejected this attempt, finding that the customer had not agreed to arbitrate because the arbitration agreement was sent to him after the transaction had been completed.

This case provides a situation similar to one often found in the construction industry: transactions with suppliers which send purchase orders or invoices with new terms when they deliver the materials. Whether or not the new terms are binding on the party receiving them often depends on a complex analysis of the parties’ conduct and applicable law. For example, had the coin customer been a “merchant” as defined under the Uniform Commercial Code, the terms of the invoice with the arbitration agreement might have been binding on him unless he communicated an objection to the company. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 2.207(b). If the new terms are not binding, however, they will not be enforced even if they contain an arbitration provision.

In the third situation, the documents comprising the parties’ agreement contained not one, but two arbitration provisions. Unfortunately, conflicting language in the provisions made both of them unenforceable. Links Constr. v. United Structures of Am., 2022 Tex. App. LEXIS 2405 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Apr. 14, 2022, no pet. h.). A general contractor hired a roofing subcontractor to perform work on a project. The parties executed a purchase order, which attached and incorporated the subcontractor’s quotation. The purchase order had a provision which required mandatory arbitration. The quotation had an arbitration provision as well, but it gave the subcontractor the sole option to decide whether the claims would be subject to arbitration. The subcontractor later filed a lawsuit against the general contractor, which moved to compel arbitration. The court denied the motion. It explained that the conflicting terms of the arbitration agreements showed that the parties had not had a “meeting of the minds” where they both reached the same understanding of their agreement. As a result, they never formed an arbitration agreement and the lawsuit could proceed.

Construction contracts sometimes attach or reference quotations or other documents. Inconsistent terms in the attached documents can create problems with interpretation and enforcement of the subcontract’s provisions. This was a worst-case scenario, where a subcontract provision which would otherwise be broadly enforced (arbitration) was rendered unenforceable by inconsistent language in the attachment. Contractors should scrutinize any attachments closely for inconsistent language. They should also include a subcontract provision stating that, in the event there is a conflict with an attachment, the language in the subcontract governs.

For more information on how these arbitration developments could impact your business, please consult with one of our attorneys at (972) 392-8900.

Texas Legislature Relieves Contractors of Liability for Design Defects—With a Few Caveats

by Tatianna Brannen

September 7, 2022

Should contractors be on the hook for defective designs that they didn’t create? For more than a century, the Texas Supreme Court answered that question with a “yes,” placing Texas among the small minority of states that expose contractors to liability for defective plans provided to them by the project owner. But the Legislature has now taken matters into its own hands: its latest addition to the Business & Commerce Code relieves builders of liability for defective plans and brings the Lone Star State into line with the national consensus. As with any law, there are exceptions, but the experienced construction attorneys at Griffith Davison are here to help you navigate them. So, what does the new law say, and what does it mean for you?

Under the newly added Chapter 59 of the Texas Business & Commerce Code, contractors are no longer responsible for the consequences of design defects. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 59.051(a). The law also ensures that a contractor need not (indeed, may not) “warranty the accuracy, adequacy, sufficiency, or suitability of plans, specifications, or other design documents provided to the contractor by” anyone other than the contractor’s own agent or associate. Id.

Chapter 59 represents a sea change in Texas’s contractor-liability law. Since 1907, the so-called Lonergan Rule has left contractors responsible for defects in design plans and specifications—even where the plans were made by a separate design professional hired by the owner. See Lonergan v. San Antonio Loan & Trust Co., 104 S.W. 1061 (Tex. 1907). Chapter 59’s new regime frees contractors from the risk of legal liability for plans they had no part in creating. Builders can now rely on plans and specifications given to them by project owners without worrying about being sued for flaws in those designs. The new rule does have some important caveats, though. All actors in the construction industry should be aware of these three qualifications:

Chapter 59 obliges contractors to disclose any design defect they learn about. Specifically, a contractor must, “within a reasonable time,” inform the other party to the contract about “any known defect in the plans, specifications, or other design documents that is discovered by the contractor, or that reasonably should have been discovered by the contractor using ordinary diligence, before or during construction.” Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 59.051(b). A noncompliant contractor “may be liable for the consequences of defects that result from the failure to disclose.” Id. § 59.051(c). Texas courts have not yet interpreted the contours of this new disclosure duty, but until they do, contractors should scrupulously document and report any concerns raised by a client’s design plans.
Chapter 59 does not apply to any project that falls within the statutory definition of a “critical infrastructure facility.” Id. § 59.002(b). That definition includes, among other things, oil refineries, power plants, and a range of oil-and-gas-related sites. Id. § 59.001(3). Contractors should carefully review the full list of critical infrastructure facilities before signing on to any large-scale project.
Logically enough, Chapter 59 does not shield contractors from design-defect liability if they are the reason for the defect. Thus, the Lonergan Rule remains intact to the extent a contractor is responsible for any design documents that turn out to be defective. To this end, Chapter 59 specifically does not cover (1) design‐build contracts insofar as the designs or plans provided by the contractor are defective; (2) engineering, procurement, and construction contracts (again, to the extent the contractor’s designs are at fault); or (3) any portion of a contract where the contractor agrees to provide signed-and-sealed design input that is ultimately incorporated into the project. Id. §§ 59.002(c)–(d). This last carveout can put contractors in a particularly tough position because it determines liability on a piece-by-piece basis. For example, if a swimming pool subcontractor provides signed, sealed shop drawings that are later used during construction, the contractor is exposed to liability for any defect in the pool’s design. Thus, even if the contract with the owner wasn’t labeled as a “design-build” contract, the contractor may still be exposed to liability for the designs of his subcontractors.

In short, Chapter 59 is a momentous development for the construction industry. The Texas Legislature has turned more than a century of legal precedent on its head to protect contractors from flaws in other people’s designs. The news isn’t all rosy for builders, though: Chapter 59 carries several important caveats that may limit—or in some cases negate—the statute’s benefits. Careful attention to the letter of the law and its judicial interpretations will be indispensable as the industry adjusts to a new legal landscape.

To discuss how these design-defect laws could impact your business, please consult with one of our attorneys at (972) 392-8900.