In a case involving the building of the Transformers ride at Universal Studios, 
United Riggers & Erectors, Inc. v. Coast Iron & Steel Co., the Supreme Court today narrowly interprets a statute that allows a contractor to withhold a payment to a subcontractor “[i]f a good faith dispute exists between the” two. The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar concludes that, to justify withholding, the dispute must be “directly relevant to the specific payment that would otherwise be due” and that “[c]ontroversies concerning unrelated work or additional payments above the amount both sides agree is owed will not excuse delay.”
The opinion has a clever introduction: “This case is about construction — both physical and statutory.”
The court affirms the Second District, Division One, Court of Appeal. It also disapproves a 2009 Third District opinion, siding instead with a 2015 decision by the Second District, Division Six, which disagreed with the Third District. In the 2009 case, the Supreme Court denied review, but Justices Joyce Kennard and Kathryn Werdegar voted to grant, a sign that the issue might eventually end up before the court. No petition for review was filed in the 2015 case.
