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Volume 6 - Number 30 | July 28, 2008
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EDITOR'S NOTES
There’s something to be said for initiative, especially in business. However, good business practices dictate that you don’t begin work on a project until the ink is dry on the contract. Otherwise, you expose yourself to liability and payment problems, among other things. On an Indian reservation roadway project, a subcontractor got to work, knowing the prime contract still wasn’t signed. When its work stalled, it couldn’t pursue claims against the payment bond for work occurring before bond issuance.
Ambiguous and clear-cut contracts provide the backdrops to this week’s other two case summaries. In one, the court had to decide if the contract excused the contractor from negligent performance. And in the other summary, though a contract clearly negated a contractor’s fiduciary duty, the contract could not contradict a state law that placed a burden of trust on the contractor.
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