THE FOUNDATIONS OF A GOOD DECISION From boldness to fairness, reaching a successful adjudication result starts with paying heed to seven pillars, as set out by Mr Justice Coulson. It wouldn’t surprise me if one day a losing party runs the argument in court that the bullying behaviour of the winner had the potential to […]
Summary: In Unaoil Ltd v Leighton Offshore Offshore PTE Ltd, the High Court examined a number of issues arising from the breach of a memorandum of agreement: as well as claiming that Leighton should make certain advance payments, Unaoil claimed that it was owed $40m in liquidated damages, and further damages for loss of profits. […]
Lindsay Hammond of Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co has published the following useful article on the following: LIQUIDATED DAMAGES OR A PENALTY? The key authority on the distinction between liquidated damages and penalties is Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company Limited v New Garage and Motor Company Limited [1915]. It confirmed that liquidated damages are intended to […]
KISS AND TELL The only people who love contracts are lawyers. For everybody else – the plasterers, the foremen, the managers – they’re just long, fuzzy words that bear no relationship to how they do their work. ‘Keep it short and simple’ should be the first rule of a legislator. “When it comes to the […]
This article was written and published on the internet by Matt Molloy Director at MCMS Ltd on 28/06/16. Almost a year ago I wrote about Peter Smith J’s recusal in Emerald Supplies v British Airways, which was made all the more interesting because it came about following the judge’s trip to Florence and his lost […]
DO YOU HAVE BREAKDOWN COVER? Rolls-Royce didn’t take out joint-names insurance to cover construction of its new plant. When a leaking pipe caused £400,000 of damage, it insisted the policy wouldn’t have covered negligence. Not everyone agreed. “The sprinkler man’s contract said the employer would obtain insurance for ‘specified perils’. One of the perils was […]
SEPARATE COMMUNICATIONS FROM A JOINT EXPERT There are some grey areas to being a joint expert witness, but one thing is clear: talking to one party without the other’s knowledge is not on Come auguest 2008, the expert produced his second report. He now said the balcony work did not pass muster. You might imagine […]
A recent TCC decision has decided that the interest provisions of the JCT Standard Building Sub-Contract Conditions apply only to Interim and Final Payments. The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 (“the Late Payment Act”) is therefore applicable to other payments falling due under the contract, such as on termination. The same interest […]
In Spartafield Ltd v Penten Group Ltd [2016] EWHC 2295 it was found that the relationship between the contractor and developer was governed by a contract that had replaced a letter of intent, despite not having been properly executed. Summary of the facts The developer, Spartafield, sought a declaration that it had entered into a […]
Parties to construction contracts (and in particular professional appointments) will commonly include provisions in their agreements which seek to apportion the risk of loss, or limit (or ‘cap’) the financial liability of one party to the other in the event of a breach of contract or negligence. However, if caps on liability are not […]
AN EMPLOYER’S LIABILITY FOR AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS TORT Tinseltime’s machinery was damages by dust caused by the contractor working for Denbighshire County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government cut concrete blocks. Tinseltime brought an action for damages, loss of profit and loss of management time against all three. The first defendant, Roberts, was the contractor […]
REMISSIONARY POSITION If you don’t pay a legitimate debt, you are liable for interest on top. That’s only fair. But what if the creditor was at fault in some way, or the invoice was wrong? If an invoice is wrong, you still have to pay interest on the right amount. Similarly, an ‘application for payment’ […]