Summary: Our construction law team secured a decisive $8 million arbitration award for a regional mechanical contractor in a complex federal hospital project dispute. After the prime contractor ceased payments and claimed our client was in default, our client faced the risk of either recovering substantial damages or facing a potential $13 million adverse judgment.
The dispute centered on a federal on-base hospital addition project where our client, despite being denied payment for $3.5 million in remaining contract work and millions in outstanding change order claims, continued performance through project completion.
The Challenge: Our client faced claims totaling approximately $9 million from the prime contractor, while asserting $7.5 million in their own claims. With a prevailing party attorneys' fees clause and expert fees exceeding $5 million combined between the parties, the financial exposure was substantial.
Our Strategy: We successfully navigated an intensive two-week arbitration featuring over 11 witnesses before a construction law expert arbitrator. The case hinged on a complex scheduling analysis to determine delay responsibility, requiring coordination with expert witnesses to present a compelling technical case.
The Result: The arbitrator issued a comprehensive 78-page reasoned award completely vindicating our client's position, awarding the full amount sought while rejecting all opposing counterclaims. This outcome not only recovered our client's substantial project losses but also avoided significant potential liability and adverse fee awards.
