Legal Question in Construction Law in California

What is my personal liability if i hold the rme or rmo license for a company, the co. i work for wants me to hold license?


Asked on 5/04/12, 4:22 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

It means your license is liable for any disciplinary action by the CSLB on the license and any other legal responsiblities that go with the license or arise out of the license, such as false claims or contracting outside the scope of a specialty or "C" license. It does not make you personally liable for the contractual and other legal liabilities of the company for projects, unless there are other facts and circumstances that would make you personally liable.

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Answered on 5/04/12, 6:11 pm
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

It can be significant. Suits normally target (a) the business named as the contractor, and/or (b) the party or parties with the insurance and the deep pockets. However, RMOs and RMEs can certainly be targets of lawsuits in their capacities as such, especially when the supervision of the work and other matters the license holder may be personally responsible to oversee are the issues in the suit. The request that you hold the license is not unusual; contracting companies are often hunting around for someone with a license to step in and put his/her number on the line. Often, it works out fine. I would, however, recommend that you make darn sure that the company is adequately insured, that the insurance will cover you in your role as license holder, and that you play a sufficiently active role in supervision and management to carry out your responsibilities under your license and nip problems in the bud. Whether or not you should do this may depend upon how well this company is organized, capitalized and run, the extent to which it compensates you for this added risk, and the quality of its insurance.

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Answered on 5/04/12, 6:26 pm


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