Gulf North Carolina Construction Expert Witness Directory

GRSM Secures Complete Judgment for Defense in Years-Long Dispute Spanning Multiple Venues

June 22, 2026 — Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani’s Hartford, Connecticut, and Dallas offices recently secured a complete defense judgment and recovery of attorney’s fees and costs in an arbitration on behalf of a longtime client, concluding a dispute that lasted several years and traversed multiple jurisdictions. The dispute initially arose in Texas state court, and almost immediately, the claimant began pursuing the matter aggressively, a pattern that continued until the day judgment was entered in GRSM’s client’s favor. GRSM’s team mounted a strong defense, achieving an early success in compelling mandatory arbitration. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani

2026 Top Business Risks for Construction and Engineering Companies

May 26, 2026 — Darren Tasker - Construction Executive
The 2026 Allianz Risk Barometer revealed some surprising findings for construction and engineering businesses. Now in its fifteenth year, this annual business risk ranking by corporate insurer Allianz Commercial incorporates the views of 3,338 global risk management professionals on the main perils on their radar for the year. Survey respondents included construction and engineering risk experts who identified the threats keeping them up at night. Here is how they ranked the top industry risks for 2026: Natural Catastrophes Natural catastrophe risk retains the top spot, with 38% of construction and engineering respondents citing this risk as their leading concern for 2026. From the insurance perspective, economic and insured losses remained high, albeit lower than the 10-year average. The evolving nature of natural catastrophes continues to pose significant challenges to businesses and the (re)insurance industry. Insured losses from natural catastrophes are set to reach $107 billion for 2025, according to Swiss Re—the sixth year in a row they have exceeded $100 billion, while economic losses are well in excess of $200 billion. Reprinted courtesy of Darren Tasker, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved. Read the full story...

Texas Prepares to Restart Data Center Construction, with Around 300 Projects Under Review And 6,608 MW Awaiting Energization Approval, Driving Demand for Rapid-Response Lifting Operations

October 20, 2026 — Sarens
Texas is experiencing an unprecedented increase in power demand. The ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) power grid reached a record peak demand of 91.1 GW in summer 2026, 6% above the previous record, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). This is compounded by interconnection requests totaling around 474 GW, more than five times the record peak, with approximately 90% of these requests related to data centers, according to the Office of the Governor of Texas. Within this context, authorities have launched a comprehensive review process. In August , the Governor directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and ERCOT to audit all data centers progressing toward grid connection, covering around 300 projects. ERCOT has also suspended approvals to energize data centers of 75 MW or more and has set December 10 as the date for the publication of its reports. For the industry, this pause creates a valuable planning window. Goldman Sachs notes that it takes 18 to 24 months to build a data center once permits have been secured, while only 50% to 60% of planned capacity is delivered on schedule. Supply chain constraints and labor shortages are among the most common causes of delays. In this context, construction agility is becoming increasingly critical. A one-month delay at a typical 60 MW U.S. data center is estimated to cost up to $14.2 million in lost revenue, additional costs and penalties, according to STL Partners data. Against this backdrop, Sarens, which has operated in the U.S. since 2009 and is headquartered in Houston, with offices also in Odessa and Beaumont, positions as a logistics partner for developers and contractors preparing for the execution phase. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Sarens

HDR Agreed to $12M Settlement With Miami Bridge Design-Build Team

May 12, 2026 — Richard Korman - Engineering News-Record
HDR last year agreed to pay $12 million to the design-build construction contractor Archer Western-de Moya Group to settle its claims that the engineer had incompletely designed and under-designed Miami's new Signature Bridge when the joint venture committed to a fixed price prior to construction in 2018. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Richard Korman, Engineering News-Record
Mr. Korman may be contacted at kormanr@enr.com

Same Insurers, Different Results: Another Chapter in Acuity v. Kinsale and the Limits of Co-Carrier Recovery Under Colorado Law

October 27, 2026 — David McLain - Colorado Construction Litigation Blog
When multiple insurers potentially owe coverage for the same construction defect claim, can one insurer force another to participate in the defense or indemnification of their common insured? If the other insurer refuses, what remedies are available? As is often the case in insurance coverage litigation, the answer depends on precisely what claim is being asserted, whose rights are being enforced, and when the claim is brought. In our earlier article, Acuity v. Kinsale Insurance Company: Co-Carrier Obligations and Subrogation under Colorado Law, we examined the United States District Court for the District of Colorado’s decision in Acuity v. Kinsale Insurance Company, 750 F. Supp. 3d 1229 (D. Colo. 2024). That decision addressed the circumstances under which an insurer that funded a construction defect settlement could pursue another insurer for equitable contribution, contractual subrogation, and alleged bad-faith conduct. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of David McLain, Higgins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell, LLC
Mr. McLain may be contacted at mclain@hhmrlaw.com

GRSM Defeats Class Certification in Precedent-Setting HOA Management Case

September 15, 2026 — Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Partners Fletcher Alford and Kevin Liu and Associate Jigar Desai secured a favorable outcome on behalf of an HOA management company in a precedent-setting class action before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, obtaining denial of the plaintiff’s motion for class certification and dismissal without prejudice of the three claims at issue. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant received earnings credit payments from a bank in exchange for maintaining HOA deposit accounts and failed to disclose the arrangement to its HOA clients. The plaintiff sought more than $40 million in damages, asserting five claims: (1) breach of contract for failing to act in class members’ best interests by not disclosing the alleged earnings credit arrangement; (2) violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) based on alleged violations of California Civil Code §§ 5375, 5375.5, and 5380; (3) breach of fiduciary duty based on the alleged undisclosed arrangement; (4) violation of the UCL for unfair business practices arising from the alleged nondisclosure; and (5) unjust enrichment. The plaintiff sought class certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2) and 23(b)(3) only as to its second, third, and fourth causes of action. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani

Insured General Contractor Prevails on Motion for Summary Judgment to Establish Builder’s Risk Coverage

July 06, 2026 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii
The general contractor’s motion for partial summary judgment successfully established that damage to footings in place before the policy period was covered after the collapse of a building. Big D Builders, Inc. v. Am Zurich Ins. Co., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72012 (D. Idaho March 31, 2026). Big D was the general contractor for building a new airplane hangar by erecting a 38,000 square foot structure. Before Big D began construction, the site of the hangar did not contain any pre-existing structures or buildings. Before completion of the hangar, it collapsed and caused extensive property damage. The builder’s risk policy issued by Zurich covered certain aspects of the construction project for the policy period December 28, 2023, to December 28, 2024. Zurich accepted coverage for most of the damage but not for damage to footings and columns installed prior to the start date of the policy. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert
Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

Leading Boutiques Combine to Form SDV Fenchurch, A Global Law Firm for Insurance Policyholders

September 15, 2026 — SDV Fenchurch
TRUMBULL, Conn., and LONDON, Sept. 1, 2026 — Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C. (SDV), Fenchurch Law, Wesolowski Abogados, and CLIR & Fenchurch and their partner members in Asia, Europe and North America combined today to launch SDV Fenchurch, a global law firm built exclusively to represent policyholders and the brokers who advise them. Structured as a Swiss verein, SDV Fenchurch unites dedicated insurance-recovery practices across eight jurisdictions in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, and Singapore. With over 90 lawyers devoted to insurance coverage matters, the firm is among the largest policyholder-side practices in the world and, by number of jurisdictions with full-time policyholder counsel capabilities, the most geographically extensive. The founders are brought together by a single shared mission: to act solely for policyholders, never the insurers, in insurance disputes. This is in stark contrast to most international firms with insurance practices, which mostly represent insurers only. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of SDV Fenchurch

GULF NORTH CAROLINA CONSTRUCTION EXPERT WITNESS DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES