Harold Saul, of the Tampa office, obtained a favorable arbitration result after a six week arbitration proceeding and a two month briefing schedule.  Harold represented a stucco contractor who was no longer in business.  The case was brought by a large builder against several contractors as a result of significant water intrusion and damage to a 48 unit 4 story condominium building.  Harold attacked the Plaintiff’s experts on their conclusions, arguing they had no factual basis to support the stucco deficiencies caused any specific damage, as they failed to properly document any causal findings.  Harold then utilized his expert to point out areas of the stucco application where it was in compliance with code.  Although there was still damage behind the stucco and other areas where the stucco application was not properly applied, there was no damage to further arrive at the lack of causation opinion to the defective stucco application.

Furthermore, with the help of Michael Clarke, of the Tampa office, they presented the panel with an 80 page closing statement to support the position Harold had developed over the six weeks of evidence.  In the end, the panel determined that the stucco application was defective, but found the Developer was not able to link any of the damage to the improper stucco application.  Thus, they awarded only the costs of the stucco application.  More importantly, the Panel concluded that neither the Developer nor Harold’s client were the prevailing party, thus denying entitlement to the Developer of any fees and costs.  Shortly after the proceeding ended, the matter settled for nominal amount.