Representative Cases
Washington State Utilities, Inc. vs. Cosmos Development Company, U.S. Bank, et al.
Mr. Campbell successfully defended Cosmos Development Company and U.S. Bank in a breach of contract and lien foreclosure action arising out of Cosmos’s $5.7 million contract with plaintiff Washington State Utilities, Inc. After winning partial summary judgment prior to trial, Mr. Campbell and his clients prevailed in a four-week jury trial against one of Seattle’s most experienced construction litigators, obtaining a net judgment in Cosmos’s favor more than twice as large as the plaintiff’s principal claims, including an award of more than $500,000 in attorney fees, costs and interest. At trial, Mr. Campbell successfully argued an issue of apparent first impression in Washington regarding the damages attributable to a contractor’s failure to maintain contractually required insurance coverage.
Construction Management Group, Inc., and Crown Delta Environmental, Inc. vs. McKinley Construction, LLC, et al.
After two subcontractors, Construction Management Group and Crown Delta Environmental, severely damaged and delayed the restoration and expansion of Seattle’s historic Bryant Elementary School, Mr. Campbell’s client, general contractor McKinley Construction, faced more than a dozen related lawsuits, including one from CMG and Crown Delta themselves. After successfully settling the other lawsuits, Mr. Campbell counterclaimed against the two subcontractors and at trial obtained a judgment worth more than $9.6 million against the two subcontractors, including attorney fees, costs and interest.
Bobby O, Inc. vs. Ledcor Construction, Inc., et al.
Mr. Campbell successfully defended general contractor Ledcor Construction, one of Canada’s largest construction companies, in a trial spanning five weeks on breach of contract and lien foreclosure claims brought by Ledcor’s utilities and earthwork subcontractor on a hotel project. Despite Ledcor’s substantial counterclaims, the subcontractor demanded affirmative recovery at mediation, thus dooming settlement efforts. After winning dismissal of some of the subcontractor’s claims before trial began, at trial Mr. Campbell and his clients prevailed on counterclaims worth more than the subcontractor’s principal claims, thus resulting in a net trial judgment in Ledcor’s favor, including an award for Ledcor’s attorney fees, costs and interest.
Redmond Ridge Investment Company, et al. adv. Jed’s Concrete, Inc.
Mr. Campbell defended owner/developer Redmond Ridge Investment Company against lien foreclosure and breach of contract claims brought by a concrete subcontractor that had worked on high-end residential construction in Redmond’s Mondavio development. Because the plaintiff subcontractor had not paid its own suppliers and those suppliers had filed their own liens, Mr. Campbell negotiated settlements with the suppliers and took assignments of their claims, including personal guarantees from the plaintiff's individual owner. Mr. Campbell then obtained summary judgment against the plaintiff's owner on the assigned personal guarantees worth more than half of the subcontractor’s entire claim. Thereafter, in mandatory pre-trial mediation, Mr. Campbell negotiated settlement of all claims for only 5% of the plaintiff's original claim amount. Mr. Campbell’s client thus ended up receiving approximately 10 times more on its counterclaims than the plaintiff received on its original claims.
Lee vs. McCracken
After hotel owners had obtained an arbitration judgment of almost $800,000 against a general contractor, which had been represented by other counsel, the hotel owners filed a second lawsuit, alleging fraudulent asset transfers and asking the Court to disregard corporate protections and impose the arbitration judgment on the contractor’s individual owner. The contractor’s individual owner retained Mr. Campbell to defend him. Mr. Campbell successfully argued in State Superior Court that any claim for fraudulent asset transfers belonged to the bankruptcy estate of the general contractor and that the State Court therefore lacked jurisdiction. Mr. Campbell then convinced the bankruptcy trustee that the fraud claims were baseless, after which the hotel owners simply dropped their claims against Mr. Campbell’s client.
Sunwest Contractors vs. Ledcor Construction, Inc., et al.
When an out-of-state framing subcontractor sued Ledcor Construction, one of Canada’s largest construction companies, for lien foreclosure and breach of contract claims on another hotel project, Mr. Campbell successfully defended Ledcor. Appearing before a three-arbitrator panel of the American Arbitration Association, Mr. Campbell won dismissal of the subcontractor’s claims and an award of more than $780,000 in Ledcor’s favor on its counterclaims, including an award of Ledcor’s attorney fees and costs.
Barker vs. W.A. Botting Company
Mr. Campbell defended W.A. Botting Company, then one of the Pacific Northwest’s oldest and largest mechanical contractors, against 11 employment-related causes of action. After deposing the plaintiff , Mr. Campbell moved for summary judgment on all 11 claims, even though plaintiff’s counsel expressed surprise that Mr. Campbell would even attempt summary judgment. The Court granted Mr. Campbell’s request for summary judgment on all 11 causes of action, a result that Pete Botting, president of W.A. Botting, described as the best legal result his company had ever gotten. On appeal, the Washington State Court of Appeals for Division One ruled for Mr. Campbell and W.A. Botting, upholding the dismissal of all of the plaintiff’s claims on appeal. See Barker v. Botting, 121 Wash.App.1030, 2004 WL 938553 (2004).
Clear Water Compliance Services, Inc. vs. Washington State Department of Revenue
Mr. Campbell represented Clear Water Compliance Services, Inc., a pioneer in cutting-edge technology to filter run-off from construction and industrial sites, in its tax appeal against the Washington State Department of Revenue. Even though Clear Water collected and remitted retail sales tax on the equipment it assembled and provided to its customers, the Department also taxed Clear Water’s purchases of the components that went into its water-filtration equipment. After exhausting the Department’s internal administrative remedies, Mr. Campbell appealed to Thurston County Superior Court. Even though the Department of Revenue believed it was entitled to summary judgment and brought such a motion, Mr. Campbell cross-moved for summary judgment on behalf of Clear Water. After lengthy oral argument, the Court granted Mr. Campbell’s Motion, with the Judge commenting in open court that, if ever there had been a case of a taxpayer doing the right thing and nevertheless receiving unfair treatment from the Department of Revenue, this was it.
Gulf Insurance, Inc. vs. McKinley Construction, LLC, et al.
After Mr. Campbell obtained a judgment at trial of almost $10 million against subcontractors insured by Gulf Insurance, Gulf, represented by one of Seattle’s preeminent insurance-coverage attorneys, commenced a declaratory judgment action against Mr. Campbell’s client, general contractor McKinley Construction, claiming no coverage for McKinley’s multi-million-dollar damages. At mediation, Gulf’s highest offer was less than $100,000, which Mr. Campbell and his client declined. Mr. Campbell then won a perfect 18 out of 18 pretrial motions that followed, including five motions for partial summary judgment. Four days before trial, and only four months after the unsuccessful mediation, Gulf settled for and paid Mr. Campbell’s client approximately sixty (60) times its best offer at the earlier mediation.