In Electrical Contractors, Inc. v. 50 Morgan Hospitality Group, 212 Conn. App. 724 (2022), the Appellate Court affirmed the trial court’s finding that payment from the property owner to the general contractor was a condition precedent to the general contractor’s obligation to pay the subcontractor. Here, the plaintiff, an electrical subcontractor on a commercial construction project, sued the defendant, the general contractor, for nonpayment of over $350,000. The subcontract between the plaintiff and defendant provided that “[the plaintiff] expressly agrees that payment by [the owner] to [the general contractor] is a condition precedent to [the general contractor’s] obligation to make partial or final payments to [the plaintiff] as provided in this paragraph . . . .” The Court held that this provision clearly and unambiguously means that the general contractor was not obligated to pay the subcontractor unless the general contractor received payment from the owner. The court further made a point to distinguish “pay-if-paid” and “pay-when-paid” clauses, noting that the latter “merely postpones a general contractor’s obligation to pay its subcontractors for a reasonable period of time,” whereas the former creates a “condition precedent” to payment.
