COURT OF APPEALS: UNPAID ARCHITECT STILL MUST PAY ENGINEER

The Court of Appeals for Franklin County has held that a general “Pay-When-Paid” clause in a Construction Contract is not sufficiently specific to interpret it as a “Pay-IF-Paid,” describing certain language required to shift the risk to a Subcontractor.  In this case, the Architect hired an Engineer who sued for payment; the Architect was not paid, but held to owe the Engineer nevertheless.  This follows 6^th Circuit Court reasoning from previous litigation, and provides a good analysis of the legal history of this issue.

EMH&T v. Triad Architects (9/29/11), 10^th Dist. Court of Appeals

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