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Located in Portland, Oregon, Stewart Sokol & Gray LLC is a Pacific Northwest law firm, emphasizing construction and design law, business and commercial litigation, business and corporate law, real estate, insurance coverage and defense, bankruptcy, and surety and fidelity law.
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On September 15, 2011, the Washington Supreme Court delivered a noteworthy victory for contractors when it unanimously overturned the Washington Court of Appeals' ruling in Williams v. Athletic Field. The Supreme Court's ruling confirmed that a construction lien using the statutory sample form is sufficient to receive the benefit of the lien statute. The lower court had ruled that a lien drafted using the sample included in RCW § 60.04.091(2) was invalid because it failed to contain a proper "acknowledgement" as required by the same statute. The Supreme Court found instead that the statute itself was ambiguous because it was subject to more than one reasonable interpretation, and that it wasn't the legislature's intent to place an excessive burden on contractors who attempt to follow the statute to protect their interests in getting paid for their work. Williams v. Athletic Field, 2011 Wash. Lexis 745 (2011). (more after the jump)
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