The dispute arose from Florida's largest and most expensive construction project to date—the $2.3 billion I-4 Ultimate Project to expand Interstate 4 between Tampa and Daytona Beach. Three contractors—Skanska USA Civil Southeast, Granite Construction Company, and The Lane Construction Corporation—formed a joint venture called SGL that initially projected $255 million in profit but soon found itself more than half a billion dollars in the red due to hurricanes, inflation, labor shortages, and geological hazards including a massive sinkhole.
As losses mounted, Lane proposed abandoning construction altogether based on what the court described as a legal theory Lane's lawyers claimed could escape liability without consequences. Circuit Judge Tjoflat wrote that "Lane knew SGL had no right to abandon ship, but its lawyers claimed they had concocted a legal theory to escape without liability." The court noted that Skanska found the proposal "too risky," explaining that "Lane's proposal rested on a series of tenuous legal assumptions, and if even one failed, SGL could face uncapped damages."
Lane alleged that Skanska harbored a conflict of interest because Skanska's sister company was financing the construction and stood to receive $75 million annually in maintenance payments. When Skanska refused to pursue Lane's termination strategy, Lane sued for breach of fiduciary duty while refusing mandatory capital calls.
After a ten-day bench trial, the District Court held that Skanska exhibited no dual loyalty and acted in the best interest of SGL. It ordered Lane to pay $80 million for refusing to fund the venture while litigation pended. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, with Judge Tjoflat writing that Lane's theory was "unsupportable," much like its lawyer's termination proposal.
The court emphasized the practical consequences of its ruling, noting that successful Florida plaintiffs are entitled to prejudgment interest "as a matter of law" and that "anything else fails to make the plaintiff whole and allows the defendant to profit from his breach." The $80 million award represented Lane's proportionate share of capital contributions that Skanska and Granite had to cover to keep the project operational.