Opinion ID: 2640748
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pre-Construction Events

Text: On March 12, 1981, Venture 15 retained Geolabs to conduct a soil engineering investigation of the future site of Newtown Meadows. On April 14, 1986, Geolabs issued an Updated Soil Engineering Investigation report to Venture 15, essentially concluding that the site was suitable for a proposed multi-family cluster development, provided that Geolabs' recommendations were followed. The report also concluded that slab-on-grade foundations can be utilized for the residential building construction. At some point, Venture 15 contracted with third-party defendant Community Planning, Inc. (Community Planning) as the civil engineer and defendant S. Horita Contracting & Building Supplies, Ltd. (S. Horita) as the general contractor for the Project. Venture 15 also retained Howard Lau of Shigemura, Lau, Sakanishi, Higuchi and Associates, Inc. (Shigemura Inc.) as the structural engineer for the design, development and construction of Newtown Meadows. At some point after being retained, S. Horita entered into a sub-contract with Liu for, inter alia, the construction of concrete slabs for the Newtown Meadows buildings. On February 19, 1987, Venture 15 contracted with Royal as the site development general contractor for the Project. Royal was responsible for, inter alia, grading and constructing roadways, parking areas, and drainage, sanitary sewer, and water systems for Newtown Meadows. Royal, in turn, entered into a subcontract with Lee to perform certain work at the project site. [2]