On March 25, 2020, the Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) to address the COVID-19 emergency. Although the CARES Act is still subject to final approval by the House of Representatives and being signed by President Trump, it is expected that there will be little or no change to
On Wednesday night, Governor Inslee issued specific guidance regarding construction projects in Washington. The guidance states that “commercial and residential construction is not authorized under the Proclamation because construction is not considered to be an essential activity.” But in general, the following categories of construction may continue:
a) Construction related to essential activities as described
As with most things, COVID-19 has disrupted the land use permitting process in Oregon, causing questions and sometimes chaos for applicants and local governments who are in the middle of such processes. At this time, most local government offices in Oregon are closed to the public, although some are accepting the public by appointment only.
COVID-19 now controls our day-to-day, but it may not control our existing contracts. To know the extent of its reach on construction projects, it’s important to touch on how delay is handled under contract law and specifically the role of force majeure.
What is Force Majeure?
An unforeseen, uncontrollable event. Force majeure is an event
Yesterday at 5:30 pm, Governor Inslee issued his “Stay at Home, Stay Healthy” proclamation. The proclamation (much of which takes effect immediately, but which goes into full effect at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, March 25) requires generally that:
On Monday, March 23rd, Governor Kate Brown issued a new executive order for the state, further limiting personal interactions. It appears that construction industry businesses are not subject to the order so long as the business designates “an employee or officer to establish, implement, and enforce social distancing polices.”
This was originally published on our blog, The Northwest Policyholder.
The economic fallout from COVID-19 has been swift and severe. Moratoriums, quarantines, and bans will continue to upend daily life and with this impose severe economic consequences on regional, national, and international commerce. While the federal government struggles to prop up the overall economy, many
Environmental activist groups recently petitioned the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (the “EQC”) to enact far-reaching rules that would regulate air emissions from so-called indirect sources in cities and metropolitan districts with populations of 50,000 or more. The petition identifies an indirect source as any facility, building, structure, or installation that attracts mobile sources (vehicles), and
Oregon federal Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman gave policyholders an early Christmas present on December 20, 2019, holding that the most commonly-used suit limitation clause in commercial property insurance is ambiguous, and that therefore the policyholder had two years from the discovery of hidden water damage to file suit against the insurer. This ruling provides additional
Along with seven other states and the District of Columbia, Oregon signed a Statement of Intent to develop a multi-state memorandum of understanding to support and accelerate the deployment of medium- and heavy-duty ZEVs (zero-emission vehicles) for consideration by the states’ governors and the mayor of the District of Columbia in summer 2020. The primary