Court Jurisdiction

If this case goes to court it would be Federal Court Jurisdiction because it is a cause involving residents of two different states, which is called diversity of citizenship. The court decision then would decide which state law would apply. Due the information provided I would assume the Federal Court would decide to try the case in the state of Virginia. The reason being Stan hired James, Stan lives in Virginia and James runs is business out of Virginia. Advice that could be given to Stan is for Stan to avoid a similar situation he should have looked at the contractor agreement, which did or did not specify an approximate time for the completion of the project. If the contractor agreement specified approximate timeframe then the general contractor negligently failed to complete this project on time. Stan the owner-suffered damages due to delay in services agreed upon, the owner then may claim compensation. An amount of damages can be agreed upon at the time the contractor agreement is signed to cover this kind of breach on the part of the contractor. This is called liquated damages. This process would have served Stan well in this exact situation and could have been an easy settlement. Since this doesn’t seem to be the case it would be handled best the alternative dispute process way. This would be best because he has not even started the work yet so hopefully no money has crossed hands. They could use a mediation process and hopefully come to an agreement. In this case, it could be a win-win for both parties. This way they do not have to go through a court process and waste more time and money. This will be in the best interest of both parties.

In conclusion, added advice I would give to Stan is when or if the next time a situation similar to this arises would be to become more familiar with service contracts and the fine print included. If there is a part of the contract you do not understand you may want to talk to lawyer and get legal advice regarding these...