Subcontractor Payment Clause Comparison: Northeastern States Versus Southeastern States

10 pages•Published: June 9, 2021

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the contingent payment language that subcontractors could take advantage of when executing contracts in the Northeast and the Southeast United States. Data for this study was collected from court cases and statutes to analyze court interpretation of the language contained in contracts. The prime beneficiaries of this study were subcontractors who learned the specific contingency language that affected their potential payments from a contractor not paid by an owner and the varying impact of that language in each state. The results of the study indicated that some states followed a pay-when-paid interpretation, others pay-if-paid and still others enacted statutes that deemed such clauses unenforceable as a matter of public policy. States considered in the study included Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. While the vast majority of southeast states do not enforce pay-if-paid clauses, more mixed results are found in the northeast.

Keyphrases: construction contracts, contingency clause, contingent payment, pay if paid, subcontractor

In: Tom Leathem, Anthony Perrenoud and Wesley Collins (editors). ASC 2021. 57th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference, vol 2, pages 191-200.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/tT1B
	https://doi.org/10.29007/p4j7

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ASC2021:Subcontractor_Payment_Clause_Comparison,
  author    = {Juan Franco and Khalid Siddiqi},
  title     = {Subcontractor Payment Clause Comparison:  Northeastern States Versus Southeastern States},
  booktitle = {ASC 2021. 57th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference},
  editor    = {Tom Leathem and Anthony Perrenoud and Wesley Collins},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Built Environment},
  volume    = {2},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2632-881X},
  url       = {/publications/paper/tT1B},
  doi       = {10.29007/p4j7},
  pages     = {191-200},
  year      = {2021}}

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