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Stesso

Litigation and Lesson Learned

9:25
12:50
163.1K views

At 9:25 in

The Most Money I've lost on any one Job

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What happens here

Following the incorrect retaining wall construction, the general contractor threatened to sue the presenter to force him to rebuild the wall (an estimated $100,000 cost), despite the presenter not having been paid for the initial work. Recognizing that a judge unfamiliar with construction intricacies might split the difference in a lawsuit, and that rebuilding would financially cripple his company, the presenter decided against a full legal battle. He recounts contacting the overall site development project manager (who had previously been angered by his unconventional methods but now saw his integrity). This project manager surprisingly sided with him against the general contractor. While the presenter still lost the initial payment, he avoided the catastrophic cost of rebuilding and further litigation. The key lesson learned was the critical need to verify all survey points independently and the challenges of trusting other parties on a construction site.

Goal: The construction error led to a threatened lawsuit, forcing the presenter to decide between fighting a costly legal battle or settling the dispute, ultimately highlighting the importance of trust and verification in construction.

What they say

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like this this is what everybody does everybody points at everybody else the only problem was I had collected a dime and now I'm keep being threatened with a lawsuit and told that I've got to rebuild this entire retaining wall or they're taking me to court now I don't have a hundred thousand dollars of extra money just sitting around that I can go out and fund rebuilding tearing this whole thing down and starting over from scratch and so I decided to fight it I decided to stand up for myself by this point I've been doing projects like this and I said I'm gonna go for it and I figured I didn't have a snowball's chance and but I picked up the phone on an off chance and I actually called the project supervisor that ran this whole site development he worked for the company that employed me that was suing me and I said by any chance would you verify that the control point was removed and he said something that absolutely stunned me he said I will now this guy's putting his job on the line and I'm like what's that he's like I will I will verify that the control point was removed enough the heavens opened I'm literally going this dude this complete stranger is going to save my hide because not only at this point am I not getting paid I'm getting sued to rebuild this wall and it would have crushed my company I didn't have the wherewithal or the funds to be able to do it and so with him on my side we were able to defray the entire attorneys cost everything went from going from a court B to being settled out of court but I still at that point I still lost because here's where it gets sad here's where it gets where I should have taken more initiative my attorney is telling me this is a slam dunk we're going for it I'm thinking all right I've got $90,000 I've lost at this point I know that the cut the contractor is going to countersue me and I know that a judge that doesn't know construction is going to look at this and he's not going to understand all of the parameters so he's going to make a judgment somewhere probably in the middle and so there's still a chance that not only do I not get paid but I could end up repaying because the teardown and the rebuild cost more than the initial build and so I said I just want away from it because now I'm weighing the value of my own time is my time going to court going to be worth whatever I could potentially recoup or can I make more money by being more productive on a different job site and so instead of fighting it all the…

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