Friday, May 16, 2003 | 11:29 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Two years of work on construction defect issues ended this morning much like the end of the last Legislative session -- with neither side happy.
With no agreement hatched early this morning after nearly 36 straight hours of talks between the opposing homebuilder and homeowner lawyers, the Assembly Judiciary Committee was expected to approve some type of bill by tonight's deadline for committee passage.
The Coalition for Fairness in Construction -- the group comprised of home builders and others in the construction trade -- could not come to terms with the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association over how notice of a defect shall be provided to a contractor.
The sides appeared to be sticking over extrapolating the notice provision in a way that would mean a homeowner with a leaky window who serves notice of a problem could spark a requirement for the contractor to replace all windows in a subdivision. Negotiators worked until after midnight and took a few hours off for some needed rest before returning this morning to the committee with news of no deal.
The homebuilders say that residents and contractors simply want a right to repair a home and prevent lawsuits that clog the courts and drag subcontractors into liability for defects they had no role in creating.
The plaintiffs' attorneys say that residents need the right to recourse for serious defects that cause harm or destroy someone's home.
Court officials just want relief from the cases that have already filled one district court department and typically take months or years to resolve.
Legislation in the works would allow a homeowner to provide notice of a defect, triggering a time line by which the contractor must repair the problem. Homeowners would still retain the right to sue at a certain point in the time frame.
But with the two parties fighting over how the notice can be extrapolated, the committee -- led by Democrats who are favorable to the trial attorneys -- could step in and rule on the side of attorneys to allow the broader definition of how the notice is used.
Judiciary Committee members have grown increasingly vocal in recent days as they urge the sides to come to a common agreement instead of making the panel decide.
"I don't see how we can go away from this session without doing anything," said Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko. "Everybody's going to come down on us."
By 7 p.m. Thursday, the sides were expected to bring the Assembly panel their deal. Instead the lawyers entered the room separately with long faces and shook their heads no to report their lack of progress. Shortly thereafter a brief session emerged in the hallway outside the committee room, with Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-North Las Vegas, in the center trying to determine where the parties were.
From inside the hearing room, several of the committee members could see the animated discussion outside and watched as trial lawyer Scott Canepa stormed away from the group, his lips offering a curse visible to even non-lip readers.
Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, admonished the parties to settle overnight saying: "This is our last opportunity and there will be no other."
Jim Wadhams, a lobbyist representing the homebuilding group, stressed the negotiations were not "being done in a casual or cavalier manner."
Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, instructed Wadhams and Canepa to work through another moonlit night -- the irony of Thursday's lunar eclipse not lost on anyone.
Moments later as Wadhams updated Southern Nevada Homebuilders Assocation director Irene Porter, the usually unswayed lobbyist said: "Excuse me in advance for my language," and then he unleashed a double expletive to describe the status of the talks.
Shortly before 9 p.m., the trial lawyers huddled around a table inside the Legislative Building deli as Wadhams and coalition members ringed the chest-high "lobbying" table behind the building's entrance.
By this morning it was clear the divide between the parties was going to lead to dissatisfaction after the committee acts later. And that was expected to lead both sides retreating to the place they were in June 2001 -- waiting for the next legislative session for change.
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