Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Partners Alan R. Belcher and Courtney C. Williams secured two significant victories for a general contractor in a construction contract dispute in the State of Wyoming.
The team first obtained dismissal of a project owner’s lawsuit, which sought control of disputed contractor bond funds and the dissolution of a temporary restraining order blocking their release. Accepting GRSM’s arguments, the court held that the dispute fell within the construction contract’s mandatory arbitration provision and required the project owner to pursue its claims in arbitration.
When the owner then sought emergency relief in arbitration to place the released funds into a restricted escrow account, the GRSM team successfully defeated that request following an evidentiary hearing. The emergency arbitrator found that the owner failed to establish irreparable harm or bad faith and that the proposed restrictions would impose a disproportionate hardship on the contractor.
These consecutive victories preserved the client’s access to operating funds while the underlying claims proceed in arbitration, underscoring the focus of GRSM’s Construction practice on protecting both its clients’ legal rights and their ability to keep doing business.