The development of CityCenter was notable for all sorts of reasons - a massive, expensive new development on The Strip is always a big story.
By now, everyone knows about the problems, most notably what happened with the stunted Harmon Hotel tower. Well, it seems that since the project is now up and running, it's time for the lawsuits to start flying.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/mar/29/strip-slugfest-pits-owner-builder/
As the Sun says - it could get ugly.
Comments
Everyone has been expecting this for some time and it will probably take years to play out. The interesting question is why is Perini fighting arbitration? I'm guessing they need the court to stay their subcontractors' suits or to get a final judgment acceptable to their insurer. Arbitration would be a much cleaner way to go (assuming they have a clean papertrail of receipts to submit).
I'm with parched here. Why won't Perini agree to arbitration? MGM Mirage is already threatening countersuits over The Harmon, so it's not guaranteed that Perini will win anything out of court. All it does is rehash all those horror stories of 2008 (the construction worker deaths, The Harmon's defaults, etc.).
I am surprised that MGM has not filed a complaint with the registrar of contractors in order to get a judgment against Perini prior to moving on to the civil action whether in court or arbitration. In the cases I have been involved with (as a testifying expert and not a party in a claim) this has been a first step that the attorneys use since the rules of disclosure are usually different with a registrar hearing which might make it possible to get the judgment you want without the full disclusre you might not be ready for.
I got stock in both of the companies, sounds like I'm a loser either way! :) Its always funny how everyone is happy with each other, until the final bills come out.
I am not at all surprised they are skipping arbitration. I feel that most likely Perini wants it to get dirty, and hopes to get it thrown out. In most of these cases, from what I've read, it seems that the blame may not be with Perini, and that may be why they want to take it to full jury.
In directive a lot of the problems it seems lies with the designers, specifically with the Harmon. These are engineering problems that should have been caught long before they were built incorrectly. Where I'm not clear, and where it becomes murky, is whether that was because Perini didn't get the information in a timely manner, or if MGM didn't convey it properly.
Regardless, this could get messy. I do think there are points on both sides, but ultimately it seems to tangled to decipher, and that may be why Perini wants a court rather than a simple arbitration.
Perini is playing hardball with MGM. Perini has written a fascinating letter to Gov. Gibbons seeking help in getting paid.
Here's the letter:
http://media.lvrj.com/documents/Letter_to_Governor_about_MGM_Payment.pdf
Here's the RJ summary:
http://www.lvrj.com/business/perini-tries-to-enlist-aid-of-govenor-s-office-92827414.html