Caltrans Legal Strategy: Fight, Delay, Pay More – Daily Journal, Aug. 13, 2009, by Don J. Benedictis
“In 2000, Caltrans might have signed off on a Fresno landscaping company’s roadside beautification work for $340,000. Instead, this past October, the department paid close to $2,000,000 after abandoning an appeal of an arbitrator’s award, the landscaper’s attorney, Steven B. Copeland, said.
“According to [Mr. Copeland and others] . . . Caltrans regularly drags out litigation over construction disputes it could have resolved. As a result, it engorges the awards it finally pays with extra costs, years of interest and even attorney’s fees for opposing counsel, the lawyers contend.
“The Fresno-area landscaping case lingered for 1,917 days at the OAH, from May 2001 to October 2006, when an arbitrator awarded J&M Land Restoration, Inc. $1.2 million. J&M Land Restoration, Inc. v. Dept. of Transportation, A-0019-2001. But then, Caltrans attorneys waited till the day before the deadline to object to the arbitrator’s award in Superior Court and to the day before deadline to appeal the court’s ruling, according to the contractor’s attorney, Steven B. Copeland. A few days before the opening brief was due, Caltrans dismissed the appeal, Copeland said.
“It took another nine months before Caltrans cut J&M a check on Oct. 6, 2008, he said.
“. . . Caltrans’ goal . . . is to force a favorable settlement as the contractors run out of money.”
