I have a client whose next-door neighbour is happy with my client’s proposed works to his property, but my client knows from past experience that the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 (PWA 1996) may affect him. Because my client and the neighbour agree what will be done, how it will be done and when it will be done, do they still need to use the Act’s machinery?
I wonder what would happen if I used words such as “I declare I have jurisdiction” every time a responding party challenged my jurisdiction and invited me to consider it.
I’m sure everyone is familiar with adjudicators making non-binding decisions on their own jurisdiction, but do parties really analyse the language adjudicators use when they give their answer? I suspect they do, if the matters makes it to court on enforcement, but perhaps not otherwise. Continue reading
It’s not unusual for a commercial or residential property development to run into trouble. In particular, in 2007 and 2008, when a run of boom years came to an abrupt end, developers had to urgently postpone or cancel many of their schemes. Some delays and cancellations inevitably led to disputes.
One of these, the Gold Group (alias Ann Summers) and Barratt saga, has now come to an end in the TCC, which gave judgment last month. Continue reading
Does size matter?
It certainly did in a recent Australian case, Unique Building PTY Ltd v Brown. The decision tackles an issue which crops up in construction defect claims: can a party recover the cost of “starting again”? Continue reading
Once again the TCC has been looking at the scope of the notice of adjudication and the consequences of an adjudicator’s decision to rule out parts of the evidence before him. Continue reading
Over the last couple of years, a number of adjudication cases have looked at whether a party seeking to enforce an adjudicator’s decision could argue something different in court to the case it presented to the adjudicator. While some call it “approbating and reprobating“, I prefer and can understand the term “blowing hot and cold”.
HHJ Havery QC said in Redworth Construction Ltd v Brookdale Healthcare Ltd [2006] EWHC 1994 (TCC) that you cannot do it. Somerfield recently ran the argument before Akenhead J in Nickleby FM Ltd v Somerfield Stores Ltd. Continue reading
The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 (the Act) has applied (unless specifically excluded) to contracts entered into since 11 May 2000. Ten years on, it seemed timely for us to take stock of receptiveness to third party rights among the industry’s key players. The outcome was encouraging.
No doubt there will be considerable column inches written in the coming days (not to mention the many water-cooler discussions taking place) over the Scottish court’s latest decision in City Inn v Shepherd.
I’m not surprised, as it is rare these days to see a judgment that tackles issues such as concurrent delay and extension of time. As Alastair Walls notes, adjudication has all but replaced court-based litigation in construction disputes and therefore what happens in practice so often remains behind the “closed doors” of that process. Continue reading
Energy and water security are thought by many to be the biggest challenges facing the world. Climate change, although even bigger, is a little further away. The problem is how to fix the first two, now, without making the third one even worse.
In the words of Henry James:
“Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
This time last year, all the talk was about who would win the Ashes (we did); last month the focus was on the World Cup (Spain won); and now it seems that attention has (finally) turned to the London 2012 Olympic Games, which start in just two years time. So far, it is a good news story, with the ODA’s latest report indicating that construction remains ahead of schedule. Continue reading