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When Trees Sue for their Own Environmental Preservation

Green Building Law Update

And we are now seeing that legal doctrine legislatively implemented such that Mother Nature is now a proper person to pursue adjudication. This may be the first time in America that an ecosystem has been given the legal status of a “person.”.

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#130:  Secured Lenders' Rights to Construction Contract Payments

NH Construction Law

Can the recipient of the notice – in legal parlance, an “account debtor” – ignore the lender’s demand and continue to pay his contractor or subcontractor? ” Thus far New Hampshire has enacted no such protective law for homeowners. (A Not unless he is prepared to pay twice!

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#109:  Liability Insurers' Duty to Defend

NH Construction Law

1990) (applying New Hampshire law) (“If some of the claims against the insured fall within the terms of coverage, and some without, the insured must still defend the entire claim (at least until it is apparent that no recovery under the covered theory can be had).”) City of Keene , 898 F.2d 2d 265, 269 (1st Cir.

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#64:  Recovering Attorneys' Fees as Damages

NH Construction Law

Legal fees incurred by A in the skirmish with B may be recovered from C as damages , i.e., as the natural and foreseeable consequence of C’s wrongful conduct. ” The New Hampshire Supreme Court recently had this “tort of another” doctrine on its plate in Halifax-American Energy Co., Partnership , 169 N.H.

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#79:  Res Judicata and the Privity Element

NH Construction Law

This principle finds expression in a legal doctrine called res judicata , also known as claim preclusion, which “prevents parties from relitigating matters actually litigated and matters that could have been litigated in the first action.” As noted in New Hampshire Motor Transport Ass’n v. Generally, only one.

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#125:  Pay-if-Paid Clauses and Contractor Default

NH Construction Law

A couple of years ago I blogged ( #101 ) on “pay-if-paid” clauses, which make a general contractor’s receipt of payment from the owner a prerequisite – a “condition precedent,” in legal terms – to its obligation to pay subcontractors. New Hampshire employs the same general rule.)

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Crystal Ball 2014

Business Facilities

– Amazon test drone shot down over New Hampshire house by man wielding 12-guage shotgun. – California legalizes marijuana, purchases entire cheese output of Wisconsin. – President Obama unveils new Obamacare slogan, “No, I Never Said We Could.” New England U.S. – CA Gov.