Practical Law

From 1 October 2011, for the first time, parties will be entitled to refer disputes arising under wholly or partly oral contracts entered into after this date to adjudication. We will have to wait and see whether this change produces an avalanche of new claims but, even if it doesn’t, clients, their advisers, adjudicators and … Continue reading Adjudicating an oral contract →

The Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Robinson v Jones considered the extent of a contractor’s duty of care in tort not to cause economic loss. Specifically, it considered the extent, if any, to which the making of a contract in itself gives rise to an assumption of responsibility (in the Hedley Byrne v Heller … Continue reading Are D&B contractors liable for tortious economic loss following Robinson v Jones? →

The decision in Banner Holdings Limited v Colchester Borough Council has already caught the attention of Matt Molloy. It is another decision of the TCC on a Part 8 claim dealing with non-compliant adjudication clauses, and it raises (and indeed revisits) a number of interesting issues.

The TCC takes a robust approach to enforcing adjudicators’ decisions and a dim view of parties “simply scrabbling around to find some argument, however tenuous, to resist payment” (Chadwick LJ, Carillion Construction Ltd v Devonport Royal Dockyard). However, a technical breach by one of the parties can result in the court declining to enforce an … Continue reading A mere technicality? →

In the recent case of Siemens Building Technologies FE Limited v Supershield Ltd, the TCC considered the circumstances in which a party may settle a claim against it and recoup the amount of that settlement from another party. This is a common scenario in construction and engineering disputes, which routinely involve a large number of … Continue reading Passing a settlement along the contractual chain →