We are facing a Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and, as a result, administrative solutions have been adopted and a state of emergency has been declared. All this has had an impact on the whole of the economy and it has also had serious adverse effects on works contracts in progress ...
There is expected to be a natural slowdown in the completion of real estate transactions in the coming weeks/months. The more immediate effects of the current situation, and of the administrative measures that continue to be adopted to control the pandemic, are especially reflected in relationships that have already been established ...
A global public health emergency was declared by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020 as a result of the spread of the new virus COVID-19. The virus was later classified as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As a result, it is important guard against any negative impact of the events relating to COVID-19 on ongoing energy licensing processes and on the energy market as a whole, particularly in the light of Decree-Law 172/2006 of23 August (“DL 172/2006”) ...
COVID-19 and the measures to mitigate the disease have had an enormous impact on people’s lives and on many sectors of the economy. In response, with regard to lease agreements and other forms of commercial use of real estate premises, the Portuguese legislature decided to introduce exceptional rules for situations of late payment of rent and other payments under said agreements ...
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) following the spread of SARS-CoV2 (Coronavirus) and the disease it causes, Covid-19.A state of emergency was declared in Portugal by Decree of the President of the Republic 14- A/2020 of 18 March and was renewed by Decree of the President of the Republic 17-A/2020 of 2 April ...
Bigger fines predicted for organisations guilty of corporate manslaughter The long awaited definitive guidelines for sentencing organisations guilty of either corporate manslaughter or a health and safety breach which causes death have been published ...
Termination of electricity supply due to non-payment of an electricity account A landlord may not, without a court order, terminate the supply of electricity to premises leased to a tenant who is in arrears with monthly electricity payments. This is according to the recent High Court judgment in the matter of Anva Properties CC vs End Street Enterprises CC (22109/2014, 14 April 2015) ...
The year 2023 was marked by the further strengthening of control over transactions involving the sale of Russian assets owned by “unfriendly” foreign entities, as well as over Russian strategic companies. As for antimonopoly regulation, after several years of discussions and revisions, the fifth antimonopoly package was adopted, and a number of precedent-setting cases were considered. Please see below for more details about the key developments and highlights of 2023. 1 ...
The court has considered the discretionary grounds of opposition under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (“the 1954 Act”) in the recent case of Gill v Lees News Ltd [2023] EWCA Civ 1178. In the case, the landlord - Mr Gill - served counter notices in response to section 26 requests for renewal tenancies pursuant to the 1954 Act served by the tenant, Lees News Ltd ...
In the recent case of Cheng Pan & Anor v Yau Lai Wah, HCA 376/2015, the Court held the Defendant liable for loss and damage caused by water leakage from his property into a neighbouring property, which resulted from the Defendant’s contractors carrying out works to pipes located in the Defendant’s property ...
In the recent case of Redland Precast Concrete Products (China) Ltd v Permasteelisa Hong Kong Ltd, HCCT 35/2018, the Court had to decide whether a contract existed between the Plaintiff and Defendant whereby the Defendant agreed to appoint the Plaintiff as its subcontractor for works to be carried out on a project ...
Arbitration provisions are becoming more common in construction contracts, but a recent court decision reveals that enforcing these provisions requires more than just placing them in a contract. Contractors, especially those seeking to arbitrate claims involving multiple property owners or an entire homeowner or condominium association, must sufficiently establish that enough of the property owners agreed to arbitrate their claims. Mattamy Florida LLC .v ...
At the end of July, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a roofing contractor’s complaint against another roofing contractor for allegedly interfering with its contract with a condominium association for roof repairs relating to Hurricane Irma. The case illustrates the importance of timing and advancing work related to insurance claims and should serve as a warning to those that regularly wait on insurance payments before beginning work ...
(Antelope Valley Groundwater Cases, JCCP No. 4408 (3/16/21))[1] After twenty-two years, the protracted proceedings in the Antelope Valley groundwater adjudication resulted in a settlement and court-approved "physical solution." A physical solution equitably allocates available water under California's laws governing water rights. The physical solution in Antelope Valley limited pumping to balance the overdrafted aquifer with the available native safe yield ...
Key Points The California Court of Appeal has issued the first published opinion interpreting California Senate Bill 35's (SB 35) new laws that streamline the approval of much-needed housing projects. Under SB 35, qualifying housing projects are eligible for ministerial review, which can reduce entitlement processing times by months if not years. In Ruegg & Ellsworth v. City of Berkeley (Cal. Ct. App., April 20, 2021, No ...
The appeal in ABC Electrification Ltd v Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd [2020] EWCA Civ 1645, concerned the proper construction of a Target Cost Contract based upon the standard Institute of Civil Engineers Conditions of Contract, Target Cost Version, First Edition (ICE Conditions) and subject to standard amendments commonly used in the rail industry, known as Network Rail 12 (N12 Amendments) ...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by commercial tenants against the High Court’s summary judgment rulings ordering them to pay rent arrears notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic ...
Earlier this year the Borgarting Court of Appeal rendered its judgment in Gassled, a case of major importance for the upstream Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) industry, natural gas buyers in Europe; and the Norwegian government, as resource owner and NCS regulator. If the judgment becomes final and binding, it will benefit the European gas supply. However, it may be a rude awakening for institutional investors in NCS infrastructure ...
On 3 May 2024, the Court of Session upheld the Scottish Ministers’ decision to refuse Miller Homes Ltd planning permission for 250 houses in West Calder. The decision is the first occasion on which the Court has considered Policy 16 of the NPF4 (Quality Homes) and confirms the approach to be adopted when considering applications for development of unallocated housing sites in the absence of an adopted local development plan postdating NPF4 ...
In December, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal reversed a judgment in favor of a landlord holding that a contractor’s lien could not attach to the real property being improvement by a tenant of the landlord. The reversal allowed the contractor’s lien enforcement claim to proceed. K.D. Construction of Florida, Inc. v. MDM Retail Ltd, arose from improvements made to a movie theater by a contractor ...
On December 2, 2014, the Yukon Supreme Court struck down the Yukon government’s Peel watershed regional land use plan because of the government’s failure to follow the process for developing that plan under final agreements (modern treaties) with the Na-Cho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondek Hwech’in and Vuntut Gwichin First Nations ...
In Silbersher v. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam lawsuit the court found was based largely on a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision and thus violated the public disclosure bar. No. 3:18-cv-01496-JD, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82548, at *22–27 (N.D. Cal. May 11, 2020) ...
