“A broadly-worded settlement clause between a London law firm which sued its former client for unpaid fees was sufficient to prevent a later claim for negligence, the Court of Appeal has confirmed.”
OUT-LAW.com, 13th February 2018
Source: www.out-law.com
‘The Court of Appeal has ruled that a firm cannot be sued for negligence after parties had signed a covenant as part of a settlement agreement.’
Law Society's Gazette, 9th February 2018
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘Over the past few months, a number of large construction companies have been making headlines for facing severe financial difficulties. However, sub-contractor insolvency can also cause considerable problems for other parties on construction projects who have contractual relations with that party.’
Practical Law: Construction Blog, 24th January 2018
‘I read the decision in Ziggurat with some incredulity. I hadn’t intended to trespass on Karen Spencer’s territory, and overall I’d agree with her conclusion that the amendments made to the ABI form seem to have confused rather than clarified matters. I’d also agree with Roddy Cormack’s comment that more radical surgery is needed if the employer wishes to secure earlier payment following the contractor’s insolvency. But I did want to offer some thoughts on what the decision tells us about wider issues in the surety bonding market.’
Practical Law: Construction Blog, 17th January 2018
‘Phones 4u has dealt a blow to Britain’s biggest mobile operator from beyond the grave, winning a key battle in a long campaign by its administrators to extract £120m in unpaid commission from EE.’
Daily Telegraph, 17th January 2018
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Nearly 20 years after the Construction Act 1996 was introduced to stamp out bad payment practices, you would be forgiven for thinking there must be a voluminous pile of case law in relation to the all-important final account. But you would be disappointed. While there is plenty of guidance from the TCC on interim payments, the courts have not had much to say about final accounts, particularly post 2011. This is why Systems Pipework Ltd v Rotary Building Services Ltd is so welcome. Coulson J draws together the authorities on interim and final account payments and concludes (in a characteristically clear and to the point judgment) that the same rules apply to both.’
Practical Law: Construction Blog, 20th December 2017
‘One of the fears relating to adjudication is that a referring party will attempt to achieve success by grinding the responding party down through serial adjudications until it achieves the result it wants or the responding party gives in. In Benfield Construction Ltd v Trudson (Hatton) Ltd, Coulson J issued a clear warning that such an approach would not be condoned, stating.’
Practical Law: Construction Blog, 20th December 2017
‘Business contracts have become the language and form of commercial transactions. Their ubiquity is only surpassed by their functionality. They are useful for establishing one parties rights and obligations towards others as well as available remedies and dispute resolution mechanisms. Contracts can also confer powers upon a party to decide on issues that affect another party.’
4 KBW, 5th December 2017
Source: www.4kbw.net
Myths of Brexit (PDF)
Speech by Lord Justice Hamblen
Conference organised by the Hong Kong Department of Justice entitled: “Impact of Brexit on the Development of Common Law, Dispute Resolution and Judicial Co-operation in civil and commercial matters”, 2nd December 2017
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
‘Today [5 December] the Court of Appeal gave it’s eagerly awaited judgment in Budana v The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 1980. Overturning the decision of DJ Besford in the County Court at Kingston-Upon-Hull, the court ruled that a pre-LASPO CFA could validly be transferred from one firm of solicitors to another, even after 1 April 2013, in such a way as to preserve the right to recover success fees and ATE premiums, provided all three parties (client and both firms) expressly so agreed.’
4 New Square, 5th December 2017
Source: www.4newsquare.com
‘In this article I shall introduce the basics of deploying consumer law to timeshare contracts. Before I do that, I need to recap or explain two matters. One is the central “mischief” of timeshare contracts. The second is the mechanics of such contracts.’
Park Square Barristers, 29th November 2017
Source: www.parksquarebarristers.co.uk
‘The transfer of a conditional fee agreement (CFA) from one law firm to another around the time of the Jackson reforms was valid and the success fee can still be recovered from the defendant, the Court of Appeal has ruled.’
Litigation Futures, 5th December 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘Speech by Lord Justice Jackson: Does good faith have any role in construction contracts?’
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, 29th November 2017
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
‘Charlotte Davies looks at two recent decisions of the Commercial Court that provide useful illustrations of the Court’s approach to cases involving alleged oral contracts and demonstrate some of the pitfalls in such claims.’
Littleton Chambers, 8th November 2017
Source: www.littletonchambers.com
‘It is often the case that, when parties negotiate the parties’ rights to terminate a contract on particular terms, one party will often wish to have an opportunity to rectify any potential termination default that they have committed, whereas the other will wish to retain the discretion to determine when a contract will come to an end in the event of a termination event. The issue in the case was essentially about contractual interpretation, and a conflict within a termination clause which meant either the main contractor was entitled to serve a termination notice immediately on its subcontractor, or that there was a requirement that the main contractor provide an opportunity to the subcontractor to remedy the default before serving a termination notice.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 16th November 2017
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
‘A plethora of issues were raised, and disposed of, by Fraser J’s recently handed-down judgment in Riva Properties and others v Foster + Partners Ltd, the most awkwardly entertaining one being the sense of pantomime arising from the court’s clear disapproval of the architect’s behaviour, which was described at various stages as “grubby”, “disingenuous” and “wholly unprofessional”.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 10th November 2017
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
‘The changes of last August and the impending Enterprise Act 2016 changes for May of next year will transform the way we have to look at insurance contracts generally and, if our insurer clients’ underwriting departments have not substantially rewritten their proposal forms and policy documents, we can anticipate a few years of ongoing law making.’
Hailsham Chambers, 3rd November 2017
Source: www.hailshamchambers.com
‘The case concerned a residential development is White Sands, Camber, East Sussex. The land initially belonged to Burrows, which had obtained planning permission to build out a residential housing estate. Part of the land was sold to Ward, a housebuilder, subject to the terms of a contract which included an overage agreement by which 30% of profits above a fixed ceiling were payable to Burrows. That overage agreement was protected by a restriction at the Land Registry against the Ward title. Pursuant to the contract, certain disposals were “Permitted Disposals” under Clause 4.9 of the contract, not caught by the restriction. These included sales of individual units in the open market, and also (under sub-paragraph (c)) “the transfer … of land … for roads, footpaths, public open spaces or other social/community purposes”. Save as permitted, other disposals were caught by the restriction and required the disponee to submit to a deed of overage direct to Burrows.’
Falcon Chambers, November 2017
Source: www.falcon-chambers.com
‘In Interserve Construction Ltd v Hitachi Zosen Inova AG, the court was asked to interpret the termination provisions of a contract to determine whether there was a condition precedent clause.’
Practical Law: Construction Blog, 15th November 2017
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