2 South West Building & Construction SOUTH WEST


October 2010


BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION


Tavistock Newspapers Ltd, 14 Brook Street, Tavistock, Devon, PL19 0HE. Tel: 01822 613666 Fax: 01822 618222


INSIDE THIS ISSUE


■ RG Spiller hands over facility - Page 4 ■ Suppliers to the trade - Page 6 ■ Construction Showcase - Page 7 ■ Dave Bushby Plant Hire - Page 11 ■ Duchy and Payne Timber - Page 16 ■ Working with wood - Page 18 ■ MRT Homes - Page 22 ■ Bude Skip Hire - Page 24 ■ Winter Warmth - Page 25 ■ Transport Topics - Page 30


CAPTION FOR FRONT PAGE PICTURES: News and information from the businesses on the front cover is featured in this issue of South West Building & Construction magazine.


Quote of the month


‘


That whole celebrity thing is a bit of a tangled mess - Singer Annie Lennox who wants pop stars to back good causes.


STEPHEN HOMER


Interesting comments


Stephen Homer, a former chairman of the CIC South West (Devon & Cornwall), discusses a recent case.


THE recent case of City Inn Ltd v Shepherd Construction Ltd, before the Extra Division, Inner House of the Scottish Court of Session, has raised some interesting comments on the issue of concurrency of delays in construction projects.


This case arose from an appeal by City Inn against the decision of the Outer Court of Session which held that two time extensions on a building contract (an amended JCT standard form building contract, 1980 edition) were fair and reasonable. At the appeal, City Inn's submissions were unanimously rejected by the three judges. In the judgements, two of the judges followed the lower court’s reasoning while the third took a different stance.


How you can contact us


EDITORIAL Editor: Paul White


Main contributor: Andrew Townsend Paul White Communications


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E-mail swbmail@internet-today.co.uk ’


In the majority opinion, Lord Osborne set out five propositions when applying clause 25 of the JCT contract: 1. Before any claim for an


extension of time can succeed, it must be shown that the relevant event is a cause of delay and that the works are likely to be delayed or have been delayed. 2. The delaying effect of the


relevant event is to be ascertained by looking at the facts and using the principles of common sense, not by applying causation principles. 3. The decision-maker is free to decide the issue of causation on the factual evidence before him, and the claim for an extension may or may not involve the use of a critical path analysis.


4. If a dominant cause can be found, then the other causes of delay will not be material and do not need to be accounted for. 5. If there are delays due to


two causes, one being a relevant event and the other an event for which the contractor is responsible, then it will be the responsibility of the decision- maker to apportion the delay in the completion of the works, in a fair and reasonable way, between the two events.


The third judge, Lord


Carloway, agreed in the main with the majority opinion but disagreed with the apportionment exercise. Instead he came to the opinion that when an architect grants an extension of time, ‘what the architect must do is concentrate on the effect of the relevant event in the absence of any competing default’. This decision represents a common sense approach to dealing with concurrency of delays and favours a decision- maker using his judgement and skill when dealing with delay events. It does not reject critical path analysis but does leave it to the decision-maker to decide on its relevance.


Despite this though there is still debate on whether an apportionment exercise should be undertaken when dealing with two events, one a relevant event and the other a contractor default. If anyone has any queries arising from this article I can be contacted via email at s.homer@ashfords.co.uk.


SOUTH West Building & Construction magazine is now available to read on the worldwide web. The magazine, which is part of Tavistock Newspapers Ltd, can be found on the internet at www.tavistock-today.co.uk. Under menu on the home page, click the Special Publications button. This opens a new page. Then click on the cover of an edition of South West Building & Construction magazineto view that issue in full.


DISCLAIMER: The CIC SW (Devon & Cornwall) will not accept any responsibility for any loss occasional to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of the material included in this publication.


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