Litigating Claims – Blog Archive

What’s Wrong With the Stucco on Our Buildings?

Donald B. Brenner on May 27, 2020

Category: Community Associations, EIFS, Litigating Claims, Water Damage

Stucco is a product that has been in use as an exterior building cladding since the early 1800’s. It is made from Portland cement, sand and water. When installed correctly, stucco has been a reliable building material that looks good and allows incidental moisture infiltrating behind the stucco to be safely and efficiently evacuated from the building. Once stucco dries it is as hard as concrete.

A Cautionary Tale: Resist the Impulse to Exert Pressure on Your Expert to Give Opinions They Don’t Really Believe

Donald B. Brenner on February 11, 2020

Category: Community Associations, Litigating Claims

If your community association is involved in matters requiring the hiring of experts, including, but not limited to, transition-related issues, or in evaluating what to do about design and/or construction deficiencies, financial irregularities, or environmental concerns, among others, the association is going to need to engage one or more experts to assist in investigating and determining the cause and scope of each problem, a protocol for fixing each problem, and evaluating who is responsible for the damages sustained by the association.

What Can the Association Do About Damage From Water Infiltration Through Brick?

Donald B. Brenner on January 9, 2020

Category: Community Associations, Litigating Claims, Water Damage

Brick is among the materials that are most commonly used as an exterior cladding material on condominiums and other residential buildings in New Jersey. If correctly installed and maintained, it will usually last for the life of the building without allowing water to penetrate inside the wall cavity where it can damage sheathing and framing. Nevertheless, we are routinely called upon to assist condominium and homeowner’s associations that have reports of damage to their buildings caused by deficient design and/or installation of brick.

Dealing with the Unexpected: Filing an Insurance Claim

John S. Prisco on August 29, 2019

Category: Insurance, Litigating Claims

It’s that moment that no homeowner wants to have. You just returned from vacation and were in the midst of stowing the suitcases under the house in your crawlspace. As you were exiting the crawlspace, something caught your eye—a wet spot on the concrete slab floor. It wasn’t a puddle, but it was clearly moisture.

Hoping for something minor, you began to poke around. During your search, you discovered that a portion of insulation in between the floor boards was soaked. While you removed what you thought was the problem, you saw a water leak dripping down a vertical pipe in between your walls.

Unfortunately, every homeowner will have to deal with a situation like this at one time or another. Fortunately, we have insurance for these very situations, however, knowing what to do and how to handle this situation will make a world of difference to both your mental health and to your wallet.

How You Can Mitigate Construction Disputes with Contractors

John S. Prisco on June 5, 2019

Category: Insurance, Litigating Claims
Tag: Construction Defect, construction dispute, find a contractor, home improvement

Having construction work or renovations done on your home is certainly an exciting, but undoubtedly stressful time. In fact, the process from selecting a suitable (and experienced) contractor to completion of the project can be downright daunting at times. As a homeowner myself, who coincidentally is going through this very process as we speak, I know the difficulties of sifting through countless potential contractors, negotiating prices, and coordinating schedules and the like. As daunting as it may seem, there are certain steps a homeowner can take at the outset that will mitigate potential pitfalls during construction, ensure your project is constructed properly, mitigate construction disputes, and alleviate unnecessary stress.

Disney-Built Community Faces Serious Construction Deficiencies

sstark on March 10, 2017

Category: Community Associations, Litigating Claims, Water Damage
Tag: celebration fl, constrution defects, deficiencies, mold

The November 16, 2016 issue of the Wall Street Journal ran an article about Celebration, Florida, which is the master-planned community built by The Walt Disney Company in 1996. The title of the article summarized the state of affairs in Celebration as follows: “There Is Little Celebration in the Town Disney Built: Mold, leaks, rot are hurting the 1990s utopia; ‘they’re harassing my team.’” My initial thought was that if this can happen to a community built by the world’s most famous mouse, it is little wonder that a large portion of my practice involves representing community associations in lawsuits against developers and architects for construction and design deficiencies.

Lakeside at North Haledon Condominium Construction Defect Case Successfully Settled for $7.4 Million

sstark on October 20, 2016

Category: Community Associations, Litigating Claims, News

Stark & Stark Shareholders Randy Sawyer and Andrew Podolski have successfully settled the Lakeside at North Haledon Condominium construction defect case for $7.4 Million.

The case involved serious design and construction defect claims which caused damage to common elements from water infiltration through and around stucco, manufactured stone veneer (MSV) and other exterior cladding systems, plus roofs, windows and balconies. This is an impressive result because the case involved challenging insurance coverage issues related to policy exclusions for synthetic stucco trim and the lack of proof of consequential damage to sheathing and framing.

Bayview Condominium Construction Defect Case Successfully Settled for $3.1 Million

sstark on October 20, 2016

Category: Insurance, Litigating Claims, News

Stark & Stark Shareholders Thomas J. Pryor and Donald B. Brenner have successfully settled the Bay View Condominium construction defect case for $3.1M. Shareholder Randy Sawyer, along with Associates Gene Markin, John Prisco, and Tara Speer were all part of the team effort that achieved this settlement.

The case involved design and construction defect claims which caused damage to common elements from water infiltration through and around brick and other exterior cladding systems, plus roofs, windows and a plaza over a parking garage. Stark & Stark is particularly proud of this result because the case involved challenging insurance coverage issues related to the lack of proof of consequential damage to sheathing and framing.

Tempted By A Quick Transition Settlement? Not So Fast!

Andrew Podolski on July 19, 2016

Category: Community Associations, Litigating Claims
Tag: transition settlement

For a newer community association board that has recently undergone transition from developer to unit owner control, there is significant temptation to accept a quick, lump sum settlement from the developer to “settle” any remaining punch list items. New board members are often in active and frequent communication with the developer, including any developer-appointed (non-unit owner) representatives who are still sitting on the board. In addition, developers are often willing to work with associations up to and during transition to resolve any outstanding construction issues. With a seemingly cooperative developer on the one hand, and the immense costs posed by litigation on the other, boards frequently adopt a “take what we can get” approach to resolving outstanding issues with a developer rather than digging in and using the threat of litigation to leverage a better settlement. At best, this approach will most likely result in the association leaving money on the table; at worst, it will cost unit owners tens of thousands in future special assessments.

When a developer sells 75% of the units in a condominium or home owner association development, majority control of the association board is turned over to unit owners from the developer (who, up until this point, had its own representatives controlling the board). During this process, known as Transition, a developer’s primary concern is to pave the way to selling off the remaining units, obtain releases of its performance bonds and, most importantly, get the association to sign a litigation release that will prevent the association from ever suing the developer in the future. In order to get a litigation release, the developer will often offer a seemingly large sum of money. Often, the amount the developer offers actually exceeds the cost to fix any open punch list items that have yet to be completed. This seemingly generous offer by the developer is designed to tempt the board into quickly releasing the developer from any future claims.

Stark & Stark Scores Recent Settlement Victories for Condo Communities Totaling Nearly $10 Million

sstark on May 24, 2016

Category: Community Associations, Litigating Claims, News

Stark & Stark’s nationally recognized Construction Litigation group has scored some recent victories, advocating for community association and condo community clients while negotiating two major settlements in complex construction defect litigation claims for nearly $10 Million.

Most recently, the group skillfully negotiated a settlement on behalf of a Condominium Association in excess of $5.75 Million for a complex construction defect case against more than 45 defendants involving damages from water infiltration to 188 condominium units spread over 26 buildings. Stark & Stark Shareholder Andrew Podolski took the case from inception, developed and implemented the strategy, and otherwise put the case together for a jury trial. Trial was scheduled to begin on May 23, and was expected to run more than 2 months. The ramp up of trial prep activity and the looming trial date ultimately brought the defendants to the table for rigorous settlement negotiations. Drew was ably assisted in the litigation of the case by Associate John Prisco, who took some of the depositions, helped plow through a mountain of discovery materials, and did outstanding work on numerous motions and assisted with trial preparation.

Category: Litigating Claims