Cases - London Underground Limited v Citylink Telecommunications Limited (CIP)

Record details

Name

London Underground Limited v Citylink Telecommunications Limited (CIP)

Date

[2007]

Citation

EWHC 1749 (TCC)

Keywords

Construction claim - loss and expense claim - delay - global claim - causal link - delay - periods of delay

Summary

The defendant consortium contracted to replace the entire communications systems throughout London's underground rail network, together with the continued operation of that system. The replacement works were carried out, but were considerably delayed. The various delay claims were settled by an Arbitrator's award. In making the award, the Arbitrator had indicated that he was following the process in relation to global claims advised by Lord Macfadyen in Laing Management (Scotland) v John Doyle Construction Ltd. This requires a causal link to be established between delay events and periods of delay except where it is impossible to do so, in which case a global claim may succeed (but only if the dominant cause of delay is attributable to the defendant).

Ramsay J, in considering the claimant's case that the Arbitrator determined the claim based on a case which was neither pleaded nor addressed in evidence, reviewed the courts' approach to global claims. He accepted the approach set out in Laing v Doyle, stating that in global claims there will be a need for the tribunal to analyse the evidence to determine if causation may be established. In such cases, neither party will have a specific opportunity to deal with a case based on the tribunal's particular findings. In short:

'Tribunals frequently have to deal with cases where a claim or a defence has not wholly succeeded and it is necessary to determine what result flows from the partial success or failure. Provided that the result is based on primary facts which have been in issue in the proceedings, there can in principal be no objection to a tribunal taking such a course.'