Practical Law

Cladding disputes have been ubiquitous in recent years. They are a consequence of the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017, which led to a wave of inspections, investigations and scrutiny across the UK as building owners sought to ascertain whether or not their buildings were similarly defective. That process has resulted in numerous … Continue reading TCC’s judgment in Martlet v Mulalley, a cladding fire safety dispute →

Cases about liquidated damages are, it transpires, like London buses: you wait ages for one to turn up and then two come along together. Hot on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision in Triple Point, which has restored good sense to the law concerning the recoverability of liquidated damages after termination, O’Farrell J has … Continue reading Liquidated damages and London buses →

Do long-term contracts need to be construed in a particular way? Do contracts that require the parties to work together and cooperate over a period of many years have their own special rules? Do they demand special treatment when it comes to questions of contractual interpretation? Those are some of the questions raised by the … Continue reading Interpretation of PFI contracts: the long and winding road →

Trying to find a way around an exclusive remedies clause is a familiar challenge. The contract provides the parties with the right to make certain claims against each other pursuant to a specified process. There is a clause that provides that the right to make claims under the contract constitutes the parties’ sole and exclusive … Continue reading Exclusive remedies regimes: how exclusive is “exclusive”? →

In Balfour Beatty v Grove Developments, the Court of Appeal has upheld, by a majority of 2-1, the TCC’s first instance decision and concluded that the contractor had no right to receive interim payments after the planned date of practical completion. The judgment not only addresses a number of interesting points of contractual construction arising … Continue reading Court of Appeal says you may be running out of time for interim payments →

Two recent decisions have provided a good opportunity to re-examine an old debate. In interpreting contracts, to what extent is it legitimate to look at words that the parties have deleted in order to construe the remaining words?

It is comparatively rare that TCC decisions make their way up to the Court of Appeal, so, when they do, the judgments usually contain something of note for the construction practitioner. The judgment in Northrop Grumman Missions Systems Europe Ltd v BAE Systems (Al Diriyah C4I) Ltd is no exception. Although the court itself appeared keen … Continue reading Court of Appeal guidance on incorporation of terms and limits of the factual matrix →