It could be called a year-long failure to communicate, but whose failure is it? A joint venture between Skanska and Balfour Beatty is mediating a claim under a retention bond on a Microsoft project that the contractor says Harco National Insurance has refused to settle.
After Skanska Balfour Beatty asked for bail in 2025, a state court judge ordered the two sides to mediate after discovery — in which evidence is collected — and gave the parties until the end of the year to reach a settlement.
By the time the lawsuit was filed last year, the original lawsuit was already a year old.
Starting in 2017, Microsoft decided to construct a group of new buildings on its campus in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft recently shelved the last five planned new buildings.
But part of the overall project that was built was known as The Square. It consists of new buildings and a connecting walkway.
Skanska Balfour Beatty hired Roschmann Steel & Glass Constructions to provide custom facade and curtain walling for the buildings in a $29.9 million contract. Roschmann began work in 2020. The contract authorized Skanska Balfour Beatty to retain a portion of payments made to Roschmann.
In 2023, Roschmann obtained a bond of $3.47 million in lieu of lien, which allowed the joint venture to pay Roschmann the full or near total amounts owed.
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But next year the joint venture claimed that Roschmann had fallen behind and that the work he had completed needed a lot of repair. So he terminated the subcontractor and notified Harco.
Roschmann filed a lawsuit in federal court in Seattle against Skanska Balfour Beatty, saying it was owed money the joint venture refused to pay and that its contract problems stemmed from the Covid-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine. As part of a company based in Bavaria, Roschmann said his work was faced with an extensive supply chain and labor shortages in Germany due to the pandemic and the war.
Microsoft also required changes that added time and expense for Roschmann, the subcontractor said.
‘Catastrophic impacts’ cited
As a result of the disruptions and project changes, Roschmann said it suffered “direct and catastrophic impacts” to its operations and repeatedly told Skanska Balfour Beatty about its problems. However, in February 2024, Roschmann says, Skanka Balfour Beatty denied Roschmann’s claims for overtime and pay.
In his lawsuit, Roschmann stated that change orders added to the scope of his work increased the total value of the contract to $33.5 million.
Meanwhile, Skanska Balfour Beatty stated that Harco did not respond to the claim and has been slow to communicate on the matter.
Harco, in response to the joint venture’s lawsuit, denies the allegations against it and says that, despite the claim being a year old, the joint venture did not provide the requested documentation necessary to investigate the guarantor’s claim.
Harco, according to the surety, “invited SBB to produce additional documentation for Harco’s review,” but the joint venture “did not respond or otherwise cooperate.”
