Rich Davies, and his team in our Pennsylvania office, successfully defended a prominent structural engineering client who was a target of over $250 million in claims arising from the design and construction of a 51-story dual-badged hotel building in Philadelphia, with the general contractor and its concrete subcontractor asserting that numerous defects in the steel reinforced concrete structure were caused by the structural engineer’s design, and not their poor performance of the work of construction that required the subcontractor to follow the shoring and reshoring plans prepared by its engineer. Following a bench trial the court concluded that the criticisms of the structural engineer’s design were without merit and that the substantial defects at issue were the result of the subcontractor’s poor performance of its work, particularly its failure to follow its shoring and reshoring plan, and the failure of the general contractor to properly supervise that work. The case involved the consolidation of 25 lawsuits in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas arising from the project and received significant national and industry press coverage.

Practice Areas: Design Professionals, Construction Defects