There has been a great deal of debate about fitness for purpose v reasonable skill and care in these columns. This is a look at the topic from a slightly different point of view.
REUTERS | David Mdzinarishvili
January 9, 2012
Fitness for purpose: the case against
REUTERS | Lee Jae-Won
January 3, 2012
My 2012 wish-list
It’s that time of year again, when everyone starts looking forwards (or backwards) and starts making lists of things that they’d like to see (or not see) happen over the next 12 months or so. Not wanting to be left out, here’s my list. I appreciate not all of these will be achieved in 2012, but that is the beauty of a “wish-list”.
REUTERS | Sukree Sukplang
January 3, 2012
Welcome to 2012
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ring out, wild bells:
“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow. The year is going, let him go. Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
As one year ends, so another year begins. PLC has been reflecting on events in 2011 and looking forward to 2012. Continue reading
REUTERS | Bobby Yip
December 23, 2011
December 2011 digest: new content and a Christmas quiz
William Shakespeare, Sonnets:
“How like a winter hath my absence been,
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness everywhere!”
During December, we continued where we left off at the end of November, with more new and updated content. We published seven more standard documents on boundary walls and excavations under the Party Wall Act 1996 and new practice notes on the ACE Agreements and the National Infrastructure Plan 2011 (NIP 2011). There was a toolkit on bribery and corruption and one on health and safety. We also revised our notes on the CIC Consultants’ Contract and the FIDIC Sub-contract 2011. Continue reading
REUTERS | Mike Segar
December 22, 2011
July to December 2011, a half-year case review
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist:
“‘If the law supposes that,’ said Mr Bumble… ‘the law is a ass – a idiot.'”:
The second half of 2011 has seen a number of important decisions affecting construction and engineering practitioners, including: Continue reading
REUTERS | Lisi Niesner
December 20, 2011
Party to construction contract can’t be adjudicator nominating body too!
There are 32 London boroughs (plus the City of London), but a quick review of the reported cases over the last five years shows that only one has ended up in the TCC trying to resist the enforcement of an adjudicator’s decision: Camden, and not just once.
Camden’s previous trips to the TCC have not ended happily for it. William Verry Ltd (RIP) successfully enforced an adjudicator’s decision against Camden in 2006 and Makers (UK) Ltd successfully enforced adjudicators’ decisions against it in 2008 and 2009.
No doubt Camden thought that it would fare better in its most recent visit with Sprunt Ltd. Alas, it was not to be. Once again it was ordered to pay the sum awarded by the adjudicator. Let me explain why. Continue reading
REUTERS | Jumana El Heloueh
December 13, 2011
Is it guaranteed?
Does a guarantee provide the reassurance its name implies? When a transaction goes wrong, the injured party may have the benefit of a bank guarantee. It could be excused for thinking that its losses will be covered, to the extent of that guarantee. However, in these tough economic times, banks and financial institutions are carefully scrutinising the terms of their guarantees and may seek to deploy a variety of arguments for refusing to be bound by them.
REUTERS | Fabrizio Bensch
December 13, 2011
Claiming interest in adjudication after PPL v Corinthian
Earlier this year I looked at claiming interest in adjudication proceedings under the Late Payment of Commercial (Interest) Act 1998, in particular the exercise of my discretion under section 5. Recently the TCC was asked (in Partner Projects v Corinthian Nominees) a similar question about whether an adjudicator had jurisdiction to award interest under the LPA.
REUTERS | Lee Jae-Won
An employer, such as a property developer, may need to involve a contractor in a project before it is ready to sign a building contract. This is sometimes generically known as early contractor involvement (ECI), and can take place on a formal or informal basis. Two common types of agreement between an employer and a contractor in these circumstances are a letter of intent and a pre-construction services agreement (PCSA). (Occasionally, a PCSA is known by the even shorter acronym: PCA, for pre-construction agreement.)
REUTERS |
December 12, 2011
E-mail arrangements over Christmas and the new year
Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody:
“So here it is merry Christmas, everybody’s having fun.
Look to the future now, It’s only just begun.”
Following business as usual this week, PLC Construction will send its last e-mail of 2011 next week, to arrive in your inbox on Thursday 22 December 2011. We are then taking a break until the new year.
The first e-mail of 2011 will be sent to arrive in your inbox on Thursday 5 January 2012. This e-mail will include reports of all developments since 22 December 2011.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
