Legal Question in Consumer Law in Pennsylvania

I need to find a lawyer but am not sure what type of lawyer to hire. My situation is this, I hired a contractor who started the job to raise my roof and after the roof was taken off he said he under bid the job and wanted more money. We did end up giving him about 90% of the contract money. He walked off the job because we would not give him any more until the job was done. He only did maybe 20% of the job. He left me with no shingles on the roof, unfinished walls, ceilings and no bathroom or covered outside walls. We have had water and other damage his workers did that I put in a claim against his insurance comnpany. The insurance company wants me to sign off on the claim before they give me anything. I have not done this yet. I was told I could go against the insurance company even though they said I can't. I need to know who and what I can do to get my money back of work he did not finish and the more than double it cost me to finish the job based on our contract. We also had one of his hired hands that stole some jewlery from me thta neither his insurance company or mine would cover.

Do I sue him, his business, and insurance company for a broken contract, damage, fraud or what?


Asked on 7/05/10, 8:27 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Rachel Hunter

You need a general civil litigation attorney.

If the contractor underbid, that was his problem. You never should have paid him the job costs.

Do not sign anything with his insurer. Once you sign and accept the funds, its over. You cannot sue the insurance company, but the contractor. The problem is that his insurer wan ts you to sign what is called a "release." In that document, you usually give up your right to sue the contractor in exchange for the money.

First, you need to find out how much it will cost to complete the job. You can recover the difference between what the job would cost once completed and what you paid out. If the insurance company is offering that much, then you can accept. If they are not, then do not sign and get a lawyer. The lawyer can sue on your behalf. You sue the contractor if he is not incorporated and you sue his business if he is incorporated or is an LLC. You do not sue the insurance company at all. The contractor's insurance company has a duty to gete the contractor a lawyer who can represent him.

Regarding the theft, you have to sue the employee and the employer. The employer may be liable for their own negligence if they knew the employee had a propensity to steal or if they gailed to adqeuately supervise him.

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Answered on 7/05/10, 1:39 pm


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