Fields of Practice
- Commerical Litigation
- Construction and Surety Law
- Government Contracts
- Eminent Domain
- Environmental Litigation
Practice Overview
Mr. Della Volpe engages in a broad range of commercial litigation which includes contract, commercial and corporate disputes, construction litigation and issues under surety law, bid protests and price disputes under government contracts, environmental regulation and litigation, and a wide range of commercial business disputes that can be resolved by litigation, arbitration, mediation, or negotiation. He has appeared in State and Federal Courts in Tennessee, Illinois, New York, Kentucky, and Georgia.
Mr. Della Volpe is a member of the American Bar Association and Tennessee Bar Association’s Litigation Practice Section, and TBA’s Mechanics Lien Law Revision Committee, and he has taught a number of seminars in the area of construction disputes.
Prior to joining Wagner, Myers & Sanger, P.C. in 1997, Mr. Della Volpe was a partner in firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell from 1987 through 1996. He joined the Baker firm after 14 years as an attorney with a federal agency known as the Tennessee Valley Authority (1973 to 1987).
Mr. Della Volpe has represented owners, contractors, and sureties in the construction field. Among other things, he has successfully resolved an $7.5 million warranty claim against a design-build contractor of power plant emission control equipment; he successfully defended a contractor against a utility’s claim for $8 million in repairs of power plant equipment. He has opposed the condemnation of property by a utility district and litigated other eminent domain valuation cases; defended companies involved in minority shareholder disputes; litigated patent and trade usage issues; handled matters involving employment discrimination, and ERISA pension rights. Mr Della Volpe has also handled government contract disputes seeking equitable and other price adjustments, and a variety of issues regarding environmental contamination of property or streams.
More detailed information on his litigation experience over the past 30 years follows:
General/Commercial litigation:
- Prosecuted a patent and trade dress infringement action and defending against multi-faceted anti-trust and unfair business practice tort counterclaims in the Southern District of New York, E-Z Bowz. LLC v. Professional Prod. Research Co., Inc., 2003 WL 22064259 and 2003 WL 22068573 (Sept. 2003), adopted 2005 WL 535065 (March 2005) dismissing counterclaims.
- Handled GAO bid protests and government contracts litigation in U.S. Court of Federal Claims. E.g., In re Tri-State Government Services, Inc., 1997 Comp Gen. No. B-277315.2.
- Defended $20 million claim against surety company based on late nuclear plant monitoring system filed by Bechtel Corp. and New Jersey Utility company. In re Technology for Energy Corp., 88 B.R. 182 (1988), and 89 B.R. 692 (1988), and 123 B.R. 979 (1991) and 143 B.R. 214 (Bankr. E.D. Tenn. 1992) (surety/commercial)
- Defended Dallas Forth Worth Airport Authority against constitutional challenge brought by Southwest Airlines in district and appellate court.
- Successfully defended $8 million breach of warranty claim against Rentenbach Construction on power plant precipitator job
- Filed and defended various unfair competition, breach of commercial contract and warranty claims
- Defended manufacturing company against $4 million ERISA class action claim brought by its management team
- Filed and defended against various construction delay claims, lien claims and requests for price or equitable adjustment, and breach of contract actions
- Defended Lockheed Martin against various whistleblower and employee claims, both administratively and before federal district and appeals courts. E.g., Hackett v. Martin Marietta Corp., 1996 LEXIS 33; Dr. Reid v. Methodist Med. Center, Sec. of Labor No. 93-CAA-4, aff’d, 103 F.3d 401 (6th Cir. 1996)
- Defended the contractor and surety in lawsuit involving construction of $25 million UT Basketball Arena
- Handled various business tort and personal injury cases and other litigation in federal and state courts at both the trial and appellate level
- Filed bid protests before federal and state procurement agencies and handled adjudicatory proceedings before the ICC and the U.S. Dept. of Labor
- Handled labor litigation. E.g., Internat'l Assoc. of Mach. v. TVA, 976 F. Supp. 114 (M.D. Tenn 1997)
- Used Mediation and other ADR methods to resolve commercial disputes
Earlier Litigation Experience at TVA:
- Prepared and tried various construction, products liability, tort, contract disputes, condemnation and environmental issues in federal and state courts. E.g., Unicore Inc. v. TVA, 768 F.2d 109 (6th Cir. 1985) (product liability); Alco Standard v. TVA, 448 F. Supp. 1175 (W.D. Tenn 1978) (patent infringement).
- Recovered $7.5 million in breach of warranty damages against environmental equipment manufacturer.
- Handled employment-related and discrimination administrative proceedings and litigation.
- Handled major construction litigation during height of TVA’s ambitious nuclear and conventional power plant expansion era.
- Assisted in snail darter case through the U.S. Supreme Court. Hill v. TVA, 419 F. Supp. 753 (E.D. Tenn. 1976), rev’d, 549 F.2d 1064 (6th Cir. 1977), aff’d, 437 U.S. 153 (1978), legislatively overruled; as well as handling permit applications and interagency relations.
- Member of agency task force to compel cleanup of mercury contamination of upper Holston River from Olin Chemical site in Saltville, Virginia.
Publications/Speaking Engagements
Mr. Della Volpe has presented seminars to attorneys, designers and contractors on Tennessee Construction Law, including:
- Getting Paid (issues and obstacles to payment for extra work);
- Water Intrusion and Mold Contamination;
- Building Codes in Tennessee (the use of codes and standards in litigation), and
- Management of Contracts and Warranty Issues.
St. Johns University School of Law, New York
- J.D. in June 1973; 7th in class of 238;
- Dean’s List; Law Review
Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania
- B.A. Degree, May 1970; Cum. Ave. 3.5 (4.0 scale)
- Major in English and Economics; Honors Program
