In the construction industry, it is common for a general contractor to avoid paying a subcontractor unless and until it has received payment from an owner for the subcontractor's work. This practice, however, had been rejected by the New York Court of Appeals in the 1995 landmark case West-Fair Elec. Constrs. v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co., 87 N.Y. 148 (1995). In that case, the Court of Appeals invalidated pay-when-paid clauses in construction contracts. Since then, relying on West-Fair, subcontractors have prevailed against general contractors who refused to pay a subcontractor because the owner had not paid the general contractor. In those situations, the general contractor bears the economic loss for the subcontractor's work, which may turn a profitable job into a non-profitable one.