Facts

In August 2003, plaintiff Barri Electric Co. Inc. and defendants Gordon N. Ball Inc. and Yerba Buena Engineering & Construction Inc. entered into a written contract with defendant Catellus Urban Construction Inc. Defendants Gordon and Yerba Buena were contractors, and plaintiff was a subcontractor. The parties took part in a joint venture for a San Francisco project called Mission Creek Park N1-NP2.

From August 2003 to January 2006, under the terms of the contract, plaintiff provided defendants with electrical work for the project. The agreed upon price was $612,533. The defendants failed to pay $37,161 of the total amount due. The defendants did not comply with plaintiff's written notice demanding payment. As a result, plaintiff was forced to file a mechanic's lien on Mission Creek Park.

The plaintiff filed suit against defendants for breach of contract. Defendant Cattelus Urban was dismissed from the lawsuit.

According to defense counsel, plaintiff recorded its lien prior to the time the owner had paid retention and therefore included amounts that were not yet due and owing in both its lien and its lawsuit. In addition, plaintiff's accounting for the project was incorrect, overstated and failed to reflect credits it owed for several items, including credits for an Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP) and changes eliminating work from Barri's contract. Under the OCIP provisions of Barri's contract, Barri was required to provide a credit for the amounts it would have had to pay for insurance but for the owner having obtained a policy that protected Barri and other contractors at the project. The third-party administrator for the OCIP program calculated the credit as in excess of $20,000, and Barri's lien and lawsuit failed to provide any credit at all.

Result

The parties settled for $22,500.

Other Information

According to defense counsel, the final amount to settle was in excess of any amount plaintiff could legitimately claim, and was paid on a cost of defense basis.