OSHA recently updated its reporting guidance for work-related confirmed hospitalizations due to COVID-19, as well as work-related COVID-19 fatalities.

Most contractors know that a bid protest must be filed either before bid opening or, depending on the circumstances, within seven days of learning of the basis for the protest. The seven-day time limit is strictly enforced and begins to run when the contractor knew or should have known of a harm.

For those who do business or litigate in Virginia, you should be aware of two noteworthy laws that take effect July 1, 2020. With the first, Virginia becomes the latest state to ban covenants not to compete for low wage employees . The second law creates a private cause of action for misclassified workers if their employers had knowledge of the misclassification.

OSHA recently issued updated guidance for the construction industry. It contains recommendations for engineering and administrative controls, as well as safe work practices and personal protective equipment, and contains links to pertinent CFR regulations.

General contractors often need to interact directly with lower tiered subcontractors and suppliers in order to keep the project moving forward. However, they should be aware that sometimes their statements can give rise to legal duties to pay those lower tiered subcontractors, with which they are not in contractual privity, when the subcontractors and suppliers are not paid by their direct counterparties.

In unprecedented times like this, the allocation of loss will become particularly important. The country will eventually reopen, and business will restart.  With it, however, will come the inevitable tide of litigation over disputes that could not be resolved.  Now is the time to carefully review contracts and leases, and begin working towards resolutions.

Although much has been written about the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and its companion relief programs, less has been written about the legal ramifications for businesses as a result of the widespread economic shutdown. From commercial leases to construction projects to supply-chain relationships, businesses are likely to take a hard look at their contracts to see what their rights and obligations are in this unprecedented time.

Important changes to general contractor liability for subcontractors’ wage violations, as well as minor changes to home improvement contracts, failed to pass Maryland’s General Assembly. The General Assembly did pass an increase in the per registrant award limit under the new home builder guaranty fund.

Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals disallows a protest filed one day after the deadline.

The Maryland General Assembly is considering limiting the application of the Responsible Payment of Employee Health Care Expenses Act.  Among other changes, a recent bill would (a) eliminate the minority business exemption, (b) exempt businesses employing 50 or fewer people and which did not exceed an average of $7,000,000 in gross sales for the past three years, and also (c) would exempt state jobs valued at less than $500,000.

In Red Coats Inc., the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals addressed whether a change in state law that caused increased operating costs constitutes a change in the scope of work sufficient to warrant an equitable adjustment. The Board determined that because the work required under the IFB and contract did not change, the contractor was not entitled to an equitable adjustment. 

In any Maryland bid that contains MBE participation goals, the MBE entity must provide a “commercially useful function” within the scope of the contract. In a recent MSBCA opinion, the MSBCA sustained the procurement officer’s determination that a bid was unresponsive because the MBE subcontractor was to perform work not required by the contract and, thus, would not perform a commercially useful function.

Earlier this year, a number of bills were introduced in the Maryland General Assembly that would affect contractors and subcontractors.  While they are too numerous to list in one blog post, a couple generally apply to most contractors and warrant attention.