Last year, the Ohio Supreme Court issued the Dugan & Meyers decision (see our e-mail alert below from last year). Among other holdings damaging to contractors, Dugan & Meyers strictly enforced the contract’s notice and claim provisions.  If contractors do not follow the relevant contract procedures, they risk not getting paid on their claim. But, there is one weakness in the owners’ new-found position, at least with respect to owner-caused delays -- the Dugan & Meyers case involved a contract that was signed before ORC 4113.62 took effect. Among other things, that statute renders void and unenforceable any provision of a construction contract that waives liability for delay, or any remedy for delay, when the owner is the cause of the delay (and the same concept is in the statute at the subcontract level for delays caused by the owner or contractor)...

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