Some people in Texas who work in construction or development may be familiar with contract disputes over buildings. In California, such a dispute has gone to court as the contractor that built the Salesforce Transit Center and Transbay Transit Center, Webcor/Obayashi Joint Venture, filed a lawsuit in the San Francisco Superior Court on Oct. 17 for $150 million against the Transbay Joint Powers Authority.
The project has been plagued with problems. The transit center went over budget and took longer to build than scheduled. After its completion, support beams developed cracks, and the building remains closed. This suit is unrelated to those cracks and claims that TJPA is trying to avoid paying its bill by blaming WOJV for costs, delays and more and that TJPA would not lengthen the contract despite knowing why the problems were happening.
According to WOJV, it was responsible for keeping the project to the planned time and budget in an earlier phase despite roadblocks from TJPA. TJPA responded with a statement saying that WOJV was to blame. The company that made the steel for the transit center is in turn suing WOJV, blaming the contractor for driving up the budget and the time needed for the project.
It is not uncommon for contract issues to arise in business relationships whether one party is a contractor or in various other areas ranging from real estate to insurance, consulting, employee contracts and more. When these disputes occur, business owners may want to talk to an attorney about their rights and how to proceed. Such a dispute does not necessarily have to go to trial. It might be possible to resolve the issue using alternative dispute resolution methods such as arbitration or mediation, or the parties might agree to an out-of-court settlement.
Source: Curbed, “Contractor sues Transbay Transit Center authority for $150 million,” Adam Brinklow, 10/18/2018