William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence:
“There was a roaring in the wind all night, the rain came heavily and fell in floods, but now the sun is rising, calm and bright.”
Our monthly digest often starts with a weather-related quote, and this month is no exception, what with all the rain and flooding that the country has recently experienced.
Away from the flooding (but still on the topic of natural disasters), during November Caroline Pope looked at some of the consequences of the 2009 Italian earthquake, Muhammed Haque discussed preventing tree root claims and the court looked at the consequences of a fire in a pool house (which Michael Mendelblat discussed).
On the adjudication front, we have seen:
- The law on severability of adjudicator’s decisions continue to develop (which Jonathan Cope discussed).
- An adjudicator’s decision not enforced because he considered the same issue again.
- Further discussion (by Matt Molloy) on the consequences of the judgment in PC Harrington v Systech.
- A number of standard documents, clauses and checklists reviewed by Melissa Moriarty.
- Discussion on adjudicating under a letter of intent.
The courts have also been looking at a range of issues, including whether:
- ADR was a condition precedent to arbitration (it wasn’t).
- An insurance policy was void due to inaccurate answers in the proposal form (it was).
- A breach of an unless order warranted the claim being struck out (it didn’t).
- A compromise agreement had been complied with (it hadn’t) (and which David Sheard discussed).
The Court of Appeal also considered how the Canada Steamship principles have been affected by the modern approach to contractual interpretation.
Elsewhere, the government has announced a “one-in, two-out” regulation policy, published a draft project agreement for school buildings and continued to comment on the European sales law proposals. The RIBA published 2012 versions of its appointments and we told you all about extensions of time after practical completion. We also added BIM provisions to our JCT Schedules of Amendments.
In public procurement, the court found errors in a procurement, a procurement policy note on bidders’ past performance was published, we had a discussion on the cost of procurement challenges (by Catherine Gelder) and a monthly case review.
Finally, PLC’s campaign on the countdown to the Jackson reforms has begun. We may not know the details of all the changes yet, but it’s good to be prepared.
