The Importance of Determining the Amount to Which You May Be Entitled After the Breach of a Construction Contract

Litigation is expensive. Before pursuing any particular claim, you need to determine if pursuing the claim makes economic sense. Standing on principle sounds good initially but often starts to seem like less of a good idea as the litigation costs mount.

The value of a claim is referred to as the “measure of damages.” In every lawsuit, the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant did something wrong that injured the plaintiff, i.e. establish the defendant’s “liability”; and the plaintiff has to prove the amount of money to which it is entitled to receive as a result of the defendant’s wrongful conduct to a reasonable certainty, i.e. establish the plaintiff’s “damages.”

Proving damages is just as important as proving liability. The failure of a plaintiff to prove its damages will result in the claims against the defendant being dismissed. See e.g. Shoreline Care Ltd. P’Ship v. Jansen & Rogan Consulting Eng’rs, P.C., 2002 Conn. Super. LEXIS 3715, *15, (Conn. Super. Ct. Nov. 15, 2002). In Shoreline Care Ltd. P’Ship, the project was constructed in phases but, because of the procedural history of the case,

Expansion of State’s Affirmative Action Program Remains in Effect

In a prior posting on this blog, I explained that a Connecticut program, which requires contractors on state public works construction projects to submit affirmative action plans to the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (the “Commission”) for approval, was being expanded to include projects administered by municipal and quasi-governmental agencies, and that the program’s expansion would be a problem because the Commission was already experiencing a backlog of submitted affirmative action plans requiring approval.  The Commission’s backlog has a significant impact on the construction industry because the “[f]ailure to develop an approved affirmative action plan … shall act as a bar to bidding on or the award of future contracts [and the Commission’s approval] shall be prima facie proof of the contractor’s eligibility to bid or be awarded contracts.”  Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-68c.  Thus, at a minimum, until the Commission is in a position to handle the required workload, the expanded program will significantly impact the state’s construction industry.

Due to the current situation, legislation was proposed last session that, if it had been passed, would have delayed the implementation of the expanded program until July 1, 2019. H.B.-5049.  The proposal to delay the expansion of the program was supported by trade associations and governmental agencies alike.