CM-at-Risk Goes to MA Supreme Judicial Court

by Hugh J. Gorman, IIII

Those currently serving as Chapter 149A Construction Managers at Risk (CM) on public building projects will be interested to learn that the Supreme Judicial Court has accepted for Direct Appellate Review this summer’s controversial Worcester Superior Court decision rendered in Coghlin Electrical Contractors, Inc. v. Gilbane Building Company.

In Coghlin, in response to a Motion To Dismiss the CM’s Third-Party Claims filed by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), the Superior Court seemingly ignored express contractual language along with decades of Massachusetts case law in ruling that the CM was responsible and liable for any and all design errors and omissions committed by DCAMM’s own third-party project “Designer” with whom the CM had no contractual relationship whatsoever.

Briefs in the case must be filed by early January, 2015 with a hearing likely to occur this Spring. A decision should be issued by next Fall.

Hugh J. Gorman, III is a Partner at Prince Lovel Tye LLP of Boston, MA.