Legal views 鈥� Page 101
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CommentFlogging a dead parrot
Here鈥檚 a trip down memory lane 鈥� back to the early seventies and Monty Python鈥檚 Flying Circus. But what could a hilarious, abusive, surreal sketch show possibly have to do with the modern construction industry?
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CommentWhat the Fiona tells us
The House of Lords has just decided a case that鈥檚 been around long enough to acquire its own nickname. And although it鈥檚 about a huge shipping dispute, it will have a big impact on construction
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CommentThe simple secret of success
The expert goes to Majorca to deliver a paper about the contractual side of building 鈥� and learns a lot about how it really works from a man who doesn鈥檛 even go to his lecture 鈥�
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CommentLeave them judges alone
When a judge in a notorious Scottish murder trial dismissed the case, he was publicly criticised by the lord advocate, who was herself publicly criticised by the lord justice general. There鈥檚 a lesson for us all here 鈥�
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CommentIts own worst enemy
The government relies on the PFI to deliver its improvements to public services. So why is it planning to wreck the systems that protect its delicate cash flow mechanism?
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CommentIt ain鈥檛 necessarily so
聽If a client presented with a payment certificate hasn鈥檛 paid up 14 days later, the dispute begins on day 15, right? Wrong. As this Scottish case demonstrates, you need to apply a little common sense
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CommentWhat are words worth?
You might not expect a member of Russia鈥檚 super-rich to speak the same language as a British builder. But when it came to deciding if the oral agreement they had was a binding contract, it was the English court that had the final word
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CommentAkenhead becomes TCC judge
Barrister Robert Akenhead takes on role as judge at the Technology and Construction Court
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CommentA house up a well-known creek
If your home played host to the contents of your neighbours鈥� toilets 17 times in eight years, you might expect the law to offer you some redress. Remarkably, as one London householder found out, it does nothing of the sort
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CommentThere is no alternative
It is tempting to pronounce that lawyers should stay out of adjudication and let construction types untangle disputes. But too many arguments can be decided fairly only with specialist legal expertise
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Dayworks document revised by RICS and Construction Confederation
New document outlining dayworks in building contracts is launched this month
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CommentKiss and tell
The only people who love contracts are lawyers. For everybody else 鈥� the plasterers, the foremen, the managers 鈥� they鈥檙e just long, fuzzy words that bear no relationship to how they do their work. 鈥楰eep it short and simple鈥� should be the first rule of a legislator
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CommentHappy ever after
Main contractors and subcontractors make all kinds of rash promises during the courting stage. Then they quarrel. A new toolkit from the National Specialist Contractors Council aims to keep things sweet to the end
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CommentDo you have breakdown cover?
Rolls-Royce didn鈥檛 take out joint-names insurance to cover construction of its new plant. When a leaking pipe caused 拢400,000 of damage, it insisted the policy wouldn鈥檛 have covered negligence. Not everyone agreed
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CommentMind your language, minister
The government鈥檚 latest attempts at spelling out the Construction Act鈥檚 payment rules are a triumph of impenetrable gobbledegook. It鈥檚 time for some plain English
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CommentAn exemplary disaster
Fail to renew your public liability insurance at your peril, as this dreadful tale of a family-run electrical firm, a little old lady鈥檚 bungalow and some (possibly) poorly rigged festoon cabling proves
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CommentThe battle of Easingwold
Margaret Tomlinson wanted an extension for her terraced home. Okay, said the builder, that will be 拢19,500, please. It was downhill all the way after that, ending up in a trial that lasted six-and-a-half days鈥�
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CommentJCT sleeps with the fishes
Standard forms are supposed to make things easy, but that wasn鈥檛 exactly the builder鈥檚 experience in Reinwood vs Brown. Maybe it鈥檚 time the whole lot were taken for a ride 鈥�
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CommentNo more boobs
As the Chinese say, a man who makes a mistake and does not correct it makes another mistake. This should be born in mind by the DTI in its present review of the Construction Act
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CommentGuaranteed trouble
Here鈥檚 an everyday story of a new home, its disgruntled owners, their worried insurer, its unhappy builder and a legal case that didn鈥檛 go the way it was supposed to