In Girolametti v. Michael Horton Assocs., Inc., the Supreme Court determined when a subcontractor’s rights will be affected by an arbitration in which the subcontractor did not participate. Girolametti v. Michael Horton Assocs., Inc., 332 Conn. 67, 71 (2019). This decision was based upon “the rule of claim preclusion,” which prevents the re-litigation of a claim once the claim has had a full and fair hearing “regardless of what additional or different evidence or legal theories might be advanced in support of it.” Id. at 75. In order for claim preclusion to apply, the following requirements must be met:
(1) The prior judgment must have been rendered on the merits by a court of competent jurisdiction;
(2) The parties to the prior and subsequent actions must be the same or in privity;
(3) There must have been an adequate opportunity to litigate the matter fully; and
(4) The same underlying claim must be at issue.
Id. After applying these requirements in Girolametti, the Supreme Court held that the owner’s claims against the subcontractors were barred because they were either brought or could have been brought in the owner’s arbitration against the general contractor.
As I have written before, a mechanic’s lien provides a contractor with an attachment to real property to secure the amount claimed due for work performed. However, before the mechanic’s lien can be successfully foreclosed and converted to a court judgment, the contractor has to prove the underlying contract debt. The benefits of the mechanic’s lien procedure is that it requires nothing more than the contractor’s sworn statement to be put in place. Essentially, in the case of subcontractor claims, the statutes allow a contractor to attach the property of the owner, who may not be aware of the claim, based upon nothing more than the contractor’s good word.
The trade off to the ease with which a mechanic’s lien can be put in place is that there are times where the mechanic’s lien is ineffective through no fault of the contractor. For example, an owner will have a defense to a subcontractor’s mechanic’s lien if it makes full payment to the general contractor before receiving notice of the lien. In addition, should the property not have sufficient equity to cover the amount of the debt, the court will award “strict foreclosure” and, at best,
General speaking, you cannot sue the state unless the state gives you permission. The legal concept that prevents you from being able to sue the state is known as “sovereign immunity,” and comes from the English common law where the commoners were not allowed to sue the King without his permission. The State of Connecticut has decided; however, that it is in its interest to allow itself to be sued when it enters contracts pertaining to the construction of public works projects. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-61 expressly provides that anyone that enters a contract with the state for the construction of a highway, bridge, building or other public work may bring an action against the state as long as it complies with the statutory requirements. One such requirement is that the contractor gives notice of its claim to the agency head within 2 years of the project’s acceptance. On December 7, 2010, the Connecticut Supreme Court released a decision that clarifies the § 4-61 notice requirements.
In C. R. Klewin Northeast, LLC v. State of Connecticut, the Supreme Court overturned a trial court decision that dismissed the contractor’s complaint because the contractor’s notice purportedly did not comply with § 4-61.