In North Carolina, lawsuits by homeowners against contractors and subcontractors are governed by the economic loss rule. This rule, articulated in the seminal case Ports Auth. v Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Co., states that a plaintiff cannot sue in tort when a contractual remedy exists, with a few exceptions: unless a third-party sustained the injury,…
Among the bills to emerge from the ongoing 2019 session of the North Carolina General Assembly is a structural and substantive revision of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 22B-1, which invalidates certain indemnity agreements in the construction industry. Among the substantive revisions are a new subsection (b) deems invalid any indemnity agreement unless “the fault of…
A List of Do’s and Do Not’s for North Carolina General Contractors in a post-Salinas Era. In Salinas v. Commercial Interiors, Inc., 848 F.3d 125 (4th Cir. 2017), the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals laid out a new test for determining when two or more individuals or corporate entities should be considered “joint employers” of…