Contractors Get Relief with Construction Subcontractor Law after the US Appeals Court Strikes Down a Mississippi Law for “Stop Payment Notices” Issued by Subcontractors
(PRWEB) October 21, 2013 -- Stop payment notices, under the construction subcontractor laws in Mississippi, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Washington, allow subcontractors to force a customer to withhold monies that a prime contractor has earned. According to court documents, a company called Noatex Corporation in Torrance, Calif. hired a subcontractor to install conveyor systems in Mississippi for a customer there. After the customer became dissatisfied with the subcontractor’s behavior on the job-site, and told Noatex that the subcontractor could no longer work there, the subcontractor issued a “stop notice” to the customer. The notice stopped the customer from paying Noatex.
Noatex turned for help to an experienced attorney in Los Angeles, its long-time outside counsel, Robert E. Kohn of Kohn Law Group, Inc., and enlisted Wise Carter Child & Caraway, P.A. in Mississippi for local representation. The legal team concluded that the stop notice procedure was unconstitutional, and the federal courts agreed. The U.S. Court of Appeals explained, the subcontractor’s notice — which operated to stop Noatex from receiving payment from its own customer — “deprives the contractor of a significant property interest, the right to receive payment and to be free from any interference with that right.” That violated Due Process under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. As a result, the stop notice was vacated, and the judgment declares that the notice has no effect on the money that the customer had withheld from Noatex.
A stop notice lasts indefinitely unless challenged in court or withdrawn voluntarily by the subcontractor, which means that going to court can be the only practical way for a prime contractor to get paid. The court rulings that invalidated the Mississippi law are now published. See Noatex Corp. v. King Constr., LLC, 864 F. Supp. 2d 478 (N.D. Miss. 2012), affirmed, — F.3d —, 2013 WL 5575468 (5th Cir. 2013). The stop notice law in the Noatex case was Section 85-7-181 of the Mississippi Code. In California, Section 8522 of the Civil Code authorizes a similar procedure. And similar laws are on the books in Arizona, New Mexico and Washington State. Now, contractors on jobs in any of those states can attack a stop payment notice in the same way that Kohn attacked the stop notice for Noatex.
Kohn assists clients nationwide in all kinds of contract and construction industry disputes. He also represents whistleblowers and companies in False Claims Act actions involving government contracts and government programs at the federal, state and local levels. Kohn serves the Federal Bar Association as Chair of its Federal Litigation Section, and serves the American Bar Association on the editorial board of Litigation, the magazine of the ABA’s section of litigation. Before founding the Kohn Law Group firm in 2003, he was a partner with McDermott, Will & Emery in Los Angeles. Kohn earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University, and he received his law degree from Duke (with honors) in 1992 before clerking for Judge Joel F. Dubina of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Robert E. Kohn, Kohn Law Group, Inc., http://www.kohnlawgroup.com, +1 (310) 917-1011, [email protected]
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