At first, I hesitated in reviewing the Florida Construction Law Blog nomination because the blog’s updating has been relatively infrequent. The most recent posting dates to Dec. 3, 2013, and the previous posting goes back to September. In my opinion, blogs need to be maintained with some frequency to be effective.
However, after reading some of the postings, I decided that this blog focuses on quality rather than quantity — with relevant observations especially of Florida state Supreme Court decisions directly related to the AEC industry.
Consider, for example, this posting by lawyer Nicholas D. Siegrfied:?Florida Supreme Court Ruling Affirms Fifth DCA Decision That “In Pari Delicto” Defense Is Not Available to Unlicensed Contractors.
The title is daunting, but the topic is not. An unlicensed sub-trade claimed that the general contractor, knowing he was unlicensed, was equally liable for losses in a civil matter under the legal “In Pari Delicto” defense. Latin words like these are over my head, but Siegfried makes it clear why this concept is rather important:
?On January 24, 2013, the court ruled in the case of?Earth Trades, Inc., et al., v. T&G Corporation?that Florida law precludes an unlicensed subcontractor from employing the common law defense of?in pari delicto– referring to equal wrongdoers – by arguing that the general contractor knew or should have known that the subcontractor did not hold the required state licenses for the work to be performed.
“Accordingly, even if it was proven that T&G knew Earth Trades was unlicensed, such knowledge, as a matter of law, would be insufficient to place the parties in pari delicto,” Siegfried wrote. “This decision is yet another reminder of the perils of working without the required state licenses for contractors and subcontractors in Florida.”
You can nominate entries for the Best Construction Blog competition until January 31. ?Then voting commences and continues through March 31.
