Cases - Wiltshier Construction (South) Ltd v Parkers Developments Ltd

Record details

Name

Wiltshier Construction (South) Ltd v Parkers Developments Ltd

Date

(1996)

Citation

13 Const. LJ 129

Keywords

Contract - obligation to 'carry out the works with due diligence and in an economical and expeditious manner' - termination - notice of termination - whether the notices given were valid and thereby validly terminated the contract

Summary

The claimants were employed as management contractors for the defendants pursuant to the JCT Standard Form of Management Contract (1987 edition). The defendants alleged default on the claimants' part 'to carry out the works with due diligence and in an economical and expeditious manner', and purported to operate the contractual machinery to determine the contract. An injunction to prevent determination was sought.

The Court held that the notice was invalid because

1. it was not the function of the claimant to carry out 'the works';
2. the claimants were not under a contractual duty to ensure that the project was carried out in an economical and expeditious manner;
3. the notice did not indicate, even in general terms, what was amiss with the claimants' performance (as opposed to the contractors' performance);
4. the notice purported to put the burden on the claimants to provide information as to why an unstated complaint should not be considered accurate: it was not the purpose of a termination notice to seek to obtain an explanation from the claimant as to cost and time overruns on the project; and
5. the claimants were given no indication of what he was supposed to do within 14 days by way of proceeding regularly and diligently with the work. The cost and time overruns of themselves could not be cured in that time.