Construction and engineering practitioners often summarise the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract’s (ECC) position on float with the words, “the contractor owns the float”. This is a useful maxim, but conceals a hidden trap. Continue reading
REUTERS | Aly Song
May 3, 2011
Ask the team: Does the contractor own the float in an NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC)?
REUTERS | Kim Hong-Ji
May 3, 2011
Limitation periods and knowledge of defects
Missing a limitation date is the sort of thing to make a lawyer wake up at night in a cold sweat. So it always surprises me how often claimants seem to leave things until a critical deadline before issuing proceedings. (I should make clear that in the case below, where the action was held to be statute-barred, there is no indication as to who was at fault.)
REUTERS | Ronen Zvulun
The Scottish courts call it “failing to exhaust your jurisdiction”. The English courts haven’t come up with a snazzy name like that, they just say the adjudicator failed to consider submissions before him or ignored aspects of a party’s submissions. It all boils down to the parties having a fair hearing and the outcome is the same. The adjudicator hasn’t done what was asked of him and his decision is unenforceable due to a breach of the rules of natural justice.
The topic has been before both the Scottish and the English courts recently. Continue reading
