CE 412 Construction Law and the Property Development Process
2011 Spring Semester — Course Syllabus
Lecture
Professor
Wednesday
6:40 - 9:20 pm
RTH 115
Dana Sherman
Office
OHE 530G (fifth floor, right turn out elevator, down the hall next to bathroom)
Phone
(818) 881-3738 (818) 881-5580 (fax)
Email
danasher@usc.edu
Office Hours
I teach on Monday and Tuesday evenings. I can meet you before or after either class, but
by prior appointment. Otherwise, I am not usually on campus during the day. You can call
me or you can email me. Email is best as I often work late. If you send an email, identify
the course. Also, if you have a question about a problem, you need to tell me the
problem, not just the number, as I may not have access the assignment when I respond.
Prerequisites
This is NOT an introductory course. It is a graduate course with an undergraduate course
number. While there are no prerequisites, each student should have completed CE 404
or CE 473, a business or real estate law course, be a graduate student, have work
experience or have permission of the instructor. The course is NOT limited to civil
engineering or construction majors. NO technical background expected.
Textbooks
*Legal Aspects of Architecture, Engineering and the Construction Process, 8th edition by
Justin Sweet and Marc Schneier (Thomson Publishing)
*Each student MUST
have a current edition
text–you will need it
Buffalo Creek Disaster (paperback)
Course Description
Legal aspects of property development and construction: land use, construction practices
and specifications, architecture and engineering contracts, agency, subcontracting,
professional registration, liability, insurance, liens, and bonds.
Course Objectives
The course is intended to provide students in civil engineering, construction management,
real estate development, architecture, urban planning and related fields with an in-depth
examination of the legal issues involved in the construction and real estate development
process. This includes an understanding of the legal context in which architects,
engineers, planners, general contractors, subcontractors, and owners must operate. The
class will also increase awareness of ethical issues in the construction process. The
specific objectives of the course are to:
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Method of Instruction
Identify, formulate and solve legal issues in construction
Have knowledge of contemporary legal and business issues
Recognize the need for continuing life-long learning
Understand the impact of engineering in a global and social/legal context
Participate effectively on multi-disciplinary teams
Understand professional ethical issues and responsibilities
Lecture, class discussion and review of assignments conducted by the instructor will
occupy the class period. Students are expected to participate in class. The course
assistant is responsible for administrative and not teaching duties and there will be no
separate discussion sections. A 10 minute break will occur midway through the class. The
class is intended to be practical in its approach. Students working in the fields of real
estate development and construction are STRONGLY encouraged to bring to the attention
of the instructor forms, contracts, procedures, problems or legal issues which the students
deal with on a daily basis or which are found in the current construction literature.
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CE 412 Construction Law and the Property Development Process
2011 Spring Semester — Course Syllabus
Grading
Final grade schema
is based on the
following
percentages of
graded coursework:
There is no ―forced curve‖ and cooperative learning is encouraged on homework
assignments. However, you can expect that your fellow students will be very bright and
highly motivated and the course is conducted accordingly. Thus, it is to your benefit to
help each other as much as possible. Cumulative class scores will be posted on
Blackboard by the course assistant. You are also encouraged to contact the instructor at
any time if you are having problems completing the assignments or understanding the
material. You should do so as early as possible during the semester and not wait until the
week before the final exam. The DEN students will be graded separately from the in-class
students.
Midterm 1
15 %
Midterm 2
15 %
Paper (Tentative)
15 %
Quiz/Assign.
20 %
Final
35 %
Total
Assignments
Cooperation and
Copying
100 %
Homework assignments are due at the beginning of class. Late assignments are accepted
with a penalty of fifty percent of the actual score only if the answers are not previously
discussed in class. Put your name on your homework assignment papers and your
student number. You should turn in the original assignment but retain a copy for yourself
to have in class for discussion. The instructor will attempt to return homework
assignments within two weeks. If you have a question regarding grading o work, bring it to
the attention of the instructor as soon as possible. Unclaimed papers will be discarded
after four weeks.
Cooperative learning is encouraged on homework assignments. Thus, it is to your benefit
to help each other as much as possible. Scores will be posted on Blackboard and will be
sent on a frequent basis by the course assistant. You are also encouraged to contact the
instructor at any time if you are having problems completing the assignments or
understanding the material.
While cooperative learning is encouraged, plagiarism or the copying of the work of
another student is not allowed. This has recently become a problem There is a difference
between working with others on an assignment or project and simply copying the work
done by another student. I assure you that I have had enough experience to be able to
tell the difference.
If copying is determined to occur, for a first offense, the grade for a particular assignment
will be negative the number of points possible for that assignment. This negative score
applies to all persons involved, regardless of who originated the assignment and who did
the copying. You are MUCH better off to turn in an assignment late (and get 50% of the
points) than to copy another paper and receive minus 100%. For a second offense,
students will be referred for disciplinary action as described in the SCampus Student
Guidebook.
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CE 412 Construction Law and the Property Development Process
2011 Spring Semester — Course Syllabus
Term Papers
TENTATIVE: Dan Epstein has indicated he will sponsor but no official word:
The Institute of Industrial Engineers is having a competition for the best paper on the use
of industrial engineering techniques in construction. Examples are lean project delivery,
quality management, six sigma, green technology, sustainability, etc. The winner will
receive XXX plus XXX in expenses to fly to XXX to present the paper. The award is
sponsored by Dan Epstein, for whom the USC Industrial Engineering Department is
named. The papers must be no more than 10 pages in length and follow the competition
guidelines. The papers are due to be submitted by XXXX The guidelines can be found at
www.lliconstruction.org/studentpaper.htm
Preparation of a paper by each student in the class which will be submitted to the
competition is a course requirement and will count for 15 % of your course grade.
You are required to do the following:
1. Jan XX: Submit a paper topic with content outline and major sources identified
2. Feb XX: Submit first draft for review
3. Mar XX: Submit final paper
This paper will be coordinated with the resources of the Engineering Writing Program. In
addition, you may use whatever resources the guidelines allow including speaking with
faculty members, professional journals, industry interviews, etc.. However, all resources
must be properly cited.
Quizzes and
Examinations
There will be a class quiz and/or assignment due at almost every class. There is no
make-up of missed quizzes. Each quiz will cover both the material from the previous week
and also the reading for that night. Thus, you are expected to have read the material
BEFORE the class session. Quiz and examination exercises are not cooperative.
Examinations are closed book, closed note and closed mouth. Calculators may be used if
appropriate. Examinations are almost exclusively objective in format. The final exam will
be cumulative: about 40% earlier material and 60% since the second midterm.
For the DEN students, you will take the quizzes using the testing feature of Blackboard.
The quizzes will be posted a few days before the class. You do NOT have to go to a
proctored location for any quiz, midterm or assignment, except the final exam.
Other Activities
There may be certain additional activities which will not take place during regular
class hours. These will result in extra credit point opportunities may arise from time to time
during the semester. These points will be added to your total score after the letter grade
cutoffs are established (that is, they really are extra credit). The maximum extra credit
points available will be an additional 5% of the total possible points. DEN students who
may not be able to attend these activities are NOT penalized.
One event is the Visions and Voices March 30 program: Incidentally Architecture
A REQUIRED event will be the USC-AGC Symposium in the Ronald Tudor Campus
Center on Tuesday, April 19, 2011. The dinner event has been free to USC students. The
Symposium is On-Track and deals with transportation issues.
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CE 412 Construction Law and the Property Development Process
2011 Spring Semester — Course Syllabus
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory for non-DEN students. I assure you that if you do not attend the
class regularly, that your grade will suffer. I understand that students often have personal,
family or employment obligations that may result in a class being missed and you should
speak with me about these situations. After 30 years of teaching, I will advise you that
you can expect the class to be very competitive and that the best grades consistently go
to the students who attend each class and do the homework assignments timely. This is
not the course for you if cannot devote the time and energy necessary to learn the
material.
Occasionally, a student will have a personal or family medical or other emergency, will
have the necessity to travel for work related business, or will be compelled to miss a class
due to a significant university sponsored event in which the student will participate
including intercollegiate athletics (note: this does not include primarily social
events....even if you are a business student). Contact the instructor as soon as the
possible conflict is known and arrangements will be made to the extent possible to allow
the student to timely turn in homework assignments or take a quiz.
Instructional
Philosophy
I would like to make two important points with regard to the course. First, the goal of the
course is not about your grade. My goal in the course is to make it possible for you to
learn at least as much of the subject matter as I present and as much as you want to.
There is only one purpose of the quizzes and assignments and tests which is to help you
learn the material and then evaluate your understanding so you can improve. If you need
help with the homework, discuss it with another student or the teaching assistant. If you
don’t understand the material, don’t worry and wander around the intellectual
darkness...ask the instructor. Learning is not about competing with others, it is about
doing the best you can.
Second, grading is inherently unfair. It does not measure effort. It does not measure
worthiness, need or desire. It does not measure the amount of your improvement. It only
measures either (a) final performance relative to a fixed standard or (b) final performance
relative to others in the class. The grade is not the goal, the grade is only an outcome.
But I assure you, if you get a good grade, it will reflect knowledge of the material.
DEN
For those undergraduates who are not familiar with DEN, this is the USC Distance
Education Network hosted by the Viterbi School. It is normally available only for graduate
classes, but there will be some graduate students in CE 412 from the Construction
Management Program. All of the lectures are both broadcast on the internet and are
available for ALL students to watch again up to 10 times. Class notes and course
documents are posted on Blackboard.
DEN students will NOT have to arrange proctoring except for the final exam. The quizzes
and examinations will be posted a few days prior to the class and must be completed by
the start of the lecture. DEN students may contact the instructor by email or by telephone
with any questions about the material. Administrative/access matters are the responsibility
of the teaching assistant. The DEN students are NOT graded on the same scale as the
in-class students since there are sometimes slightly different requirements.
The discussion board feature of Blackboard will be established but it is not moderated. It
will be monitored from time to time.
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CE 412 Construction Law and the Property Development Process
2011 Spring Semester — Course Syllabus
DEN (cont.)
DEN students and on-campus students have access to course webcasts at the DEN
website. DEN students may watch webcasts of the lectures as they occur or
subsequently, or both. On campus students will automatically have access to DEN. On
campus students may review lectures only after they occur. For general technical
problems with the course website, contact DEN Web Support at 213-821-1321 or email at
webclass@den.usc.edu. For general administrative questions relating to DEN call 213740-4488 or email denadmin@usc.edu.
For the DEN students, many of you are in the Los Angeles area and some of you are not
more than an hour from campus, even in traffic. MANY of the DEN students in class have
attended the class sessions personally whenever possible and have relied upon DEN only
if necessary. Almost uniformly, the DEN students have told me that they prefer attending
in person rather than watching the tapes. I will have the WebEx enabled only if
requested. I am happy to do so but I have arranged it in the past with only limited
participation.
Some students have had problems using the DEN testing feature. In order to assure
smooth operation, PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS:
Use Mozilla Firefox as web browser. You may download Firefox for free here:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Run the latest Java software. Download Java for free here:
http://java.com/en/
Disable pop-up blockers, or, at least, allow pop-ups from the domain
http://www.uscden.net
Save your work every five minutes to prevent loss of data due to poor connectivity or a
timed-out connection.
Log-out and log back in to the exam if you encounter connectivity problems.
HOWEVER, REMEMBER THAT THE TIMER CONTINUES TO RUN ONCE YOU HAVE
STARTED (EVEN WHEN YOU LOG OUT).
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CE 412 Construction Law and the Property Development Process
2011 Spring Semester — Course Syllabus
Assignments
Week Date
Topics
Sweet
Textbook
Handout
Material
1
1/12 Introduction; Sources of Law; American Judicial System
CH 1, 2
H/O
2
1/19 Contract Principles
CH 5, 6, 20
H/O
3
1/26 Torts; Paper Outline Due
CH 7
H/O
4
2/2
Real Property Principles
CH 9
H/O
5
2/9
MIDTERM No. 1; Employment and Agency
CH 4
H/O
6
2/16 Business Formation: Partnerships and Corporations
CH 3
H/O
7
2/23 Introduction to the Construction Process
CH 8, 19, 17
8
3/2
Professional Registration and Contractor Licensing
CH 10
9
3/9
Contracting for Design Services
CH 11, 12, 13
10
3/16 SPRING BREAK
11
3/23 MIDTERM No. 2; Bidding and Subcontracting; Paper Due to IIE
CH 18, 28
12
3/30 Changes, and Money Flow, Time; Buffalo Creek Part 1
CH 21, 22
3/30 Visions and Voices Event: Incidentally Architecture — Extra Credit
13
4/6
Execution and Performance; Buffalo Creek Part 2
CH 23, 24
14
4/13 Time and Termination; Buffalo Creek Part 3
CH 26, 33
15
4/20 Liability, Risk Management and Indemnification
CH 14, 15, 31
4/20 USC AGC Symposium (to be verified)
16
4/27 Claims Resolution/Judicial Process
17
5/4
18
5/11 FINAL EXAM (7:00 to 9:00 p.m.)
CH 27, 29, 30
Final Exam Review (tentative)
Calendar Notes:
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There will be a class quiz and/or assignment due at almost every class.
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―CH‖ refers to the Sweet textbook
H/O refers to instructor prepared handout material
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CE 412 Construction Law and the Property Development Process
2011 Spring Semester — Course Syllabus
STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept
of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless
otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by
others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own.
All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. SCampus, the Student Guidebook, contains
the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/SCAMPUS/gov/
Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should
there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at:
http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/
STATEMENT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability
Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained
from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible.
DSP Contact Information
Location:
STU 301
Hours open:
8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Monday — Friday
Phone number:
(213) 740-0776
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