Don’t gamble with construction liens.

The owner of the Golden Nugget casino in Lake Charles withheld $18.7 million from payments to its general contractor, who then filed a statutory lien (a “privilege” in Louisiana parlance) on the property. The relevant statute requires the contractor to file “within sixty days after the filing of the notice of termination or substantial completion of the work.” If “substantial completion” refers to an event, the contractor’s filing was not timely; if, however, it refers to a filing that certifies substantial completion, the contractor’s filing was timely, as the owner did not record such a certification. The Fifth Circuit concluded that, while the statute was ambiguous, the related provisions and the apparent industry practice supported the contractor’s position: “The [statute] places the burden on an owner to cut of potential claims when a contract has been recorded, whether it is a general contractor or a subcontractor.” Golden Nugget Lake Charles LLC v. W.G. Yates & Sons Constr. Co., No. 16-30496 (March 6, 2017).