Miller Act

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When a subcontractor goes unpaid on a public project, the subcontractor will almost always demand to be paid by the surety that issued the payment bond for the project. Sureties have many defenses to bond claims.

One of their favorite defenses is that the surety’s liability is coextensive with that of its principal’s (i.e., prime contractor’s) liability under the subcontract. In other words, sureties like to argue that unless the prime contractor is liable under the subcontract, the surety has no liability to the subcontractor for unpaid work.

Many courts have addressed the above “coextensive liability” argument and at least some have generally agreed that the surety’s liability is coextensive with the prime contractor’s liability. But there are courts that have found exceptions to that general rule under the federal law governing performance and payment bonds on most federal projects–the Miller Act.Continue Reading Surety Liability – Not Always Limited to the Principal’s Liability

Unpaid subcontractors on federal government projects typically have payment bond rights that allow subcontractors to sue for payment to which they are entitled. There are many deadlines subcontractors must meet to preserve their rights under a payment bond. One deadline requires subcontractors to file a payment bond claim no later than one year after the day on which the last of the labor was performed or material was supplied by the person bringing the action.

One year seems like plenty of time to file a payment bond claim, but you would be surprised how many subcontractors wait until the last possible second to file a payment bond lawsuit. That’s dangerous because it may subject an otherwise valid payment bond claim to the argument that it’s untimely because it wasn’t filed within one year of the last performance of the subcontractor’s work.

That’s exactly what happened in a very recent federal court case, United States ex rel. RCO Construction, LLC v. Federal Insurance Company. In that case,  a federal court judge provided one of the most thorough analyses of the one year statute of limitations for federal payment bond claims I have ever seen.Continue Reading The One Year Statute of Limitations for Subcontractor Federal Payment Bond Claims

Payment bonds protect subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, and others who provide labor and materials for a public project. Subcontractors and others who want to make a payment bond claim must follow the legally-required steps. The required steps depend on the type of project (e.g., federal and state government projects) and the role of the company making the claim (e.g., subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, supplier to sub-subcontractor, etc.). If you do not follow the steps by the required deadlines, you may lose your payment bond rights.

This post provides a high-level overview of the steps that must be taken to perfect a payment bond claim on most Florida state and federal public projects.Continue Reading How to Make a Payment Bond Claim on a Public Project

After a general contractor on a federal government project allegedly terminated a subcontractor’s contract for convenience, the subcontractor sued the payment bond surety for the amounts owed to the subcontractor. In Maguire-O’Hara Construction, Inc. v. Cool Roofing Systems, Inc., the subcontractor claimed the surety was liable for the unpaid remaining balance on the subcontract of nearly $2.6 million, even though the subcontractor was only owed about $360,000 for completed work. The surety filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings seeking dismissal of the subcontractor’s $2.6 million claim, which asked the court to determine whether the subcontractor could assert a claim against the surety for unperformed work. The court’s answer? No way.
Continue Reading Federal Court Rejects Subcontractor’s Payment Bond Claim for Unperformed Work