Decatur County Kansas Construction Expert Witness Directory

Modular Construction’s Hidden Risk: Where Things Go Wrong Between the Factory and the Field

June 15, 2026 — Jack Mayo - ConsensusDocs
Introduction As modular and prefabricated construction methods are increasingly adopted, so too are the potential challenges that come with them. The appeal is straightforward: faster timelines, controlled fabrication environments, and reduced on-site labor demands. But the risks that accompany these benefits are often less clear—and, in many cases, poorly defined. For example, what happens when a prefabricated component is delayed past its installation window? Who is responsible for a defect discovered inside a sealed, installed module? What happens to warranty obligations when a prefabricated component must be modified on site? Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Jack Mayo, Jones Walker LLP
Mr. Mayo may be contacted at jmayo@joneswalker.com

Lawmakers Vote to Reauthorize Programs to Support Water Quality, Coastal Protection

April 20, 2026 — Pam McFarland - Engineering News-Record
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a package of 14 bills that includes measures to reauthorize several U.S. Environmental Protection Agency programs to protect and restore critical water ecosystems, expand access to broadband, reduce regulatory requirements on airport projects and programs and lower costs of federal buildings. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Pam McFarland, Engineering News-Record
Ms. McFarland may be contacted at mcfarlandp@enr.com

Arizona Court Enters $323 Million Judgment Against ZOM Living Following Unanimous Jury Verdict

May 26, 2026 — Gray Development Group
PHOENIX, May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A Maricopa County court has entered a $323 million compensatory damages judgment in favor of Gray Development Group against ZOM Holding Inc., doing business as ZOM Living, following a 12-day trial, a unanimous jury verdict and post-trial proceedings related to a proposed business transaction. The jury found ZOM liable on claims of breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing stemming from a proposed joint venture tied to a planned pipeline of luxury multifamily and commercial projects in Phoenix and Scottsdale. The lawsuit centered on a 13-project, $1.4 billion development pipeline originated and planned by Gray Development Group over more than a decade. In 2019, Gray invited Florida-based ZOM to participate in a joint venture involving the completion of five projects, which would have marked ZOM's entry into the Arizona market. According to court findings presented at trial, the companies entered into a mutual confidentiality and non-circumvention agreement before Gray shared extensive sensitive and proprietary information related to the projects, including planning, market analysis, costs, financial data, local business relationships and operational strategies developed by Gray over decades in Arizona. Evidence presented during trial showed that over a 10-month period while under contract, ZOM made hundreds of requests for confidential project and market information before circumventing Gray and pursuing the projects independently, ultimately displacing Gray from projects it spent years planning and developing. ZOM Living, headquartered in Orlando, develops multifamily and senior housing communities across the United States and operates regional offices in Boston, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Nashville, Phoenix, and Raleigh. ZOM is owned by Timeless Investments, the Amsterdam-based family office of Dutch businessman Hans van Veggel, which acquired the company in 1997. About Gray Development Group Gray Development Group was founded by architect Bruce Gray in 1991. The Phoenix-based company was the top-ranked multifamily developer in Arizona for more than a decade. The company designed and developed more than 15,000 apartment and condominium units throughout metropolitan Phoenix. Two Gray-designed developments — a Tempe midrise and a San Diego high-rise — received National Apartment Community of the Year awards.

Construction Companies Are Nearly Seven Times Safer With These Best Practices

June 15, 2026 — ABC - Construction Executive
WASHINGTON, May 4—Associated Builders and Contractors released its 2026 Health and Safety Performance Report, an annual guide to health and safety best practices on construction jobsites. The 2026 report shows the positive effects of participating in ABC’s STEP® Health and Safety Management System, which enables top-performing ABC members to achieve incident rates 686% safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics construction industry average, reducing total recordable incident rates by 85%. Established in 1989, STEP is a proven system that provides contractors and suppliers with a robust, no-cost framework for measuring health and safety data and benchmarking with peers in the industry. This self-assessment tool helps participants identify real opportunities for scalable growth in their health and safety programs to lower their total recordable incident rates and become an employer of choice in a competitive labor market. Reprinted courtesy of ABC, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved. Read the full story...

Don’t Ignore Prejudgment Interest

February 02, 2026 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
When it comes to contracts, there may be a clause that provides that untimely payments shall bear interest at a particular rate. Or it may be the statutory rate. That clause will come into play when determining prejudgment interest. In ANY dispute, prejudgment interest can be an important damages component that accrues from the date of the loss. Don’t ignore prejudgment interest. The Fourth District of Florida, in a construction dispute, maintained:

“[I]f a plaintiff establishes that he sustained out-of-pocket loss, prejudgment interest must be awarded from the date of the loss. The trial court has no discretion regarding awarding prejudgment interest and must do so applying the statutory rate of interest in effect at the time the interest accrues.”

Bensusan v. Design Engineering Group, LLC, 2025 WL 3466367 (Fla. 4th DCA 2025) (citation omitted).

Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of David Adelstein, Kirwin Norris
Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at dma@kirwinnorris.com

Navigating Timelines and Technology: Patent Strategies for Space and Earth

June 01, 2026 — Kate Nuehring Su & Vanessa Wang - Engineering News-Record
More than half a century after the Apollo 11 landing fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s bold vision, the global race back to the Moon is no longer theoretical. With renewed attention on NASA’s Artemis program and a surge of commercial investment in space infrastructure, lunar exploration is again shaping technology priorities here on Earth. Reprinted courtesy of Kate Nuehring Su, Engineering News-Record and Vanessa Wang, Engineering News-Record Read the full story...
ENR may be contacted at enr@enr.com

It’s That Time of Year: Contract Review Time

February 02, 2026 — Garret Murai - California Construction Law Blog
My father used to make me wash the family cars every weekend . . . rain or shine. The nice thing about washing a car in the rain is that you don’t need to dry it. Once, while sudsing up one of the family cars in the rain I spotted a couple of Jehovah Witnesses making house calls along our street. As they approached our house, they looked at me, said something to one another, and decided membership probably wasn’t a good fit for our family. If my dad saw that he probably would have thought that was reason enough to have me wash the family cars in the rain. Obviously, I never mentioned it to him. This is all a rather nostalgic way of reminding myself to get off my duff. The holidays are over. There’s stuff needing doing. Whether you like it or not. Like updating my contracts. You might consider doing the same. A few suggestions: Retention For certain private works construction contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2026, retention is now capped at 5%, mirroring the 5% retention cap on state and local public works construction contracts. The 5% retention cap applies to contracts between owners and direct contractors, between direct contractors and subcontractors, and between subcontractors. So, basically, everyone up and down the construction change. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Garret Murai, Nomos LLP
Mr. Murai may be contacted at gmurai@nomosllp.com

Differing Site Conditions Claim Requires a Misrepresentation

May 14, 2026 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
If you are entertaining a differing site conditions claim, consider this Third District Court of Appeals case from the mid-90s. In Hendry Corp. v. Metropolitan Dade County, 648 So.2d 140 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995), a contractor was hired by Dade County to demolish the old Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami. The original 1941 plans of the causeway were made available to contractors. The lowest bidding contractor that was awarded the project based its bid “on its conclusion that the pilings supporting the old bridge were made of concrete.” Hendry, supra at 141. The contractor based this conclusion on the original plans, its visual observation, and experience. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of David Adelstein, Kirwin Norris
Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at dma@kirwinnorris.com

DECATUR COUNTY KANSAS CONSTRUCTION EXPERT WITNESS DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES