Cases - ERDC Construction Ltd v HM Love & Co

Record details

Name

ERDC Construction Ltd v HM Love & Co

Date

(1994)

Citation

70 BLR 67

Keywords

Contracts - building contracts - contract to carry out repairs - breach of contract - quantum meruit - whether the contractor was entitled to be paid for works carried out on a quantum meruit basis - JCT Standard Form of Building Contract, Private with Quantities, 1963 Edition

Summary

The defendants engaged the claimant contractors to carry out repairs to the defendants' premises under the JCT Standard Form of Building Contract, Private with Quantities, 1963 edition (July 1977 revision), as amended. The claimants claimed damages for breach of contract and, in the alternative, the payment of the sum of £276,388.95 as a reasonable remuneration for the work executed.

The Court held that there was no suggestion that the claimants ever intimated that they were treating any breach of contract as fundamental and were rescinding the contract. For this reason, there was no basis for the claim made upon quantum meruit. Far from rescinding the contract, the claimants all along had claimed to have performed their duties under the contract and they had sought payment under the contract. Having elected not to rescind the contract but to proceed with the contract, they must be held to have waived any claim for anything more than the contract price.