Under Minnesota law, a contractor may collect reasonable attorneys’ fees in a mechanics’ lien foreclosure action even if the property is a homestead. The amount of the award is in the discretion of the court. That is not the case in every state as recently illustrated in Iowa.
Historically, Iowa has liberally construed its mechanics’
I recently wrote about the merits of using mediation as a tool to resolve business disputes relating to land and business acquisition, land development, public permitting and related conflicts. Mediation is especially helpful, in my opinion, when money is less the object in dispute and it is more so about a difference of opinion. Of
Why would any mayor want to describe his community as a “slow city”? Stefano Cimicchi is the former Mayor of Orvieto, a medieval hill town with a population of 20,000 located in central Italy. Cimicchi was one of the first city leaders to sign on to the “slow city movement” when it began in
Developers, real estate investors and business owners are appropriately focused on creating profit and high rates of return. Managing property taxes may not be a terribly high priority. However, property taxes are usually the most significant real estate expense incurred by real estate users and have a direct impact on profitability and rates of return.
On Tuesday, February 11, 2020, the Minnesota Legislature returned to the Capitol for the start of the 2020 legislative session. Having passed a biennial state budget in 2019, this year’s “short session” will run until May 18, 2020. With the only politically divided state legislature in the nation and all 201 legislators on the ballot
Sometimes construction material or equipment the contractor buys turns out to be defective. It leaks. A part is missing. Something simply does not function straight from the box. Jumping on the defect claim may not seem to have highest priority in the middle of a construction project. “Back charge” may the automatic response, but it
Larkin Hoffman recently hosted a forum on energy storage by Clean Energy Economy MN, a group that provides a strong and unified voice for clean energy businesses in Minnesota. The event helped explain some of the barriers and opportunities to greater adoption of energy storage in Minnesota. In this piece, guest blogger Amelia Cerling
In Part I of this blog, I discussed issues that real estate and construction companies face when placing and renewing Directors and Officers Coverage. Specifically, I addressed avoiding gaps in coverage, knowledge of insureds, the definition of who is an insured, and notice. In this Part II, I will address arbitration provisions, choosing policy limits,
A statute of repose defines the date by which a particular type of claim must be asserted before it becomes untimely, or “stale,” and can no longer be pursued. This provides designers and builders of construction projects some security that, after a certain date, they cannot be hauled into court to answer for their alleged
What do all construction and real estate companies have in common? They have directors or managers and officers concentrating on running the companies and remaining profitable. Most companies maintain Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance to protect these important stakeholders from liability and lawsuits that can arise from their work. Because there is no standard
The development community has long maintained that the practice of cities exacting transportation fees or charges from developers as a condition of development approval is illegal, but the issue had not been directly and fully addressed by the courts until the Minnesota Supreme Court handed down its decision in Harstad v. City of Woodbury in