Legal Question in Construction Law in California

Re: progress payments

You are correct, the GC owes you the money NOW, not if or when the GC gets paid.

Re: progress payments

The bottom line is that you must be paid in a reasonable time, without regard for the exact contract language.

But do read your contract carefully. Look for the "time for payment" provision. There are two types of provisions that primes try to use here.

1. Pay-when-paid. This will say that subs are paid when the prime gets paid. Nevertheless, the prime must pay the sub within a reasonable time, even if prime is not yet paid. See Yamanishi v. Bleily & Collishow, 29 Cal.App.3d 457. The question becomes: what is a "reasonable" time?

2. Pay-if-paid. These say that the prime's duty to pay the sub arises only if the prime is, itself, paid by the owner. These are void and unenforceable as a matter of law. See Wm. R. Clarke v. Safeco Ins. Co. 14 Cal.4th 882.

Additionally, if you're using the standard AIA A401 Prime:Sub contract, it'll say the sub can stop work if payments to the prime aren't passed through. This applies to you only if your prime really did receive payment and is lying to you about it.

Feel free to call if this turns into a dispute.

Re: progress payments

File your Mechanic's Lien. Hopefully you did a 20 Day Prelim, but it is not fatal if you have not.

Let the general know that you also are considering exercising your option of filing a stop notice with your city. This will cause a freeze on all work.

Sometimes hard-ball is the only way to play. If the general wants to get the job done, he can cough the money out of his own pocket and recoup it when he receives his progress payment.

Please feel free to let me know if you need additional assistance. You can learn more about our firm on our main site No-Probate.com. We also handle employment issues under RulesOfEmployment.com and collection matters under CVFinancialGroup.com.

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Scott