All articles by Tony Bingham 鈥� Page 26
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Gutter sniping
An architect designed a shed but omitted to include overflows in the gutter, which flooded and ruined goods stored inside. Was it negligent, and therefore liable for the damage?
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Holiday dilemmas
A self-employed chippy put in a claim to a builder for 拢1430 holiday pay under the Working Time Regulations. He didn't win, but in not very different circumstances he might well have done.
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Stay frosty
When an adjudicator gets personal, their decision can be clamped by the High Court. Whatever the referee thinks of the parties to the dispute, there must be no suggestion of bias.
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Once bitten, fight shy
Once again, the adjudicator's figures on an award have proved controversial. But in this dispute even an admission of error failed to keep the case from court
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The problem of existence
If you sign a letter of intent with a company that doesn't exist, do 拢1m of work and then it all falls through, whom, if anyone, can you sue? Architect HOK found out after it took on a job in Hanover.
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A shop window for article 6
The case of Vestry and its shopfitter will test whether the Human Rights Act requirement for a fair hearing can affect an adjudication. Construction's self-regulatory system seems to suggest not.
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Feeling the pinch
Can you lift another builder's design or design features into your building? Yes, you can just so long as you copy the ideas and not the expression of those ideas.
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Who was to blame?
The tragic death of three children in a house fire led to a council design team being sued for negligence. The case went to the Court of Appeal, and laid down some important rules on designer liability.
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Don’t listen to chickens
So, the Discain case has knocked the wheels off the entire adjudicatory system, has it? Don’t you believe it – the judge was just making a perfectly fair point about being perfectly fair.
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Jolly well prove it
If you’re not on the ball with proving the basis for a delay claim or don’t know how to show what really caused the delay, then Nicholas Carnell’s book is certainly for you.
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Out of bounds
Section 105(2) of the Construction Act is a real dog s dinner. Under it, certain site works are not covered. So, what happens when someone calls an adjudicator on an exempt site?
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Insolvent abuse
The Court of Appeal upheld the adjudicator s wrong decision in Bouygues vs Dahl-Jensen, but what is more surprising is that it did not use liquidation law to protect Bouygues.
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Adjudication in drag
Some adjudicators seem to be suffering from judgitis , lording it over cases like Gilbert and Sullivan parodies. They could do worse than imbibe recent sobering guidance from Judge Lloyd.
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Where Woolf is wrong
Lord Woolf will make a fine Lord Chief Justice but he s just plain mistaken about the single expert witness in construction disputes. It does not speed up the process, and it makes it more expensive.
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Turning up the heat
A heating maintenance company cannot, under the terms of the Construction Act, call in an adjudicator to settle a contractual dispute. Or can it? After all, the act sets out to tackle mischief-makers.
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Fighting for one’s clause
Tolent Construction has a home-made clause in its subcontract agreement that is supposedly designed to deter spurious claims , but is it a case of the pot calling the kettle black?
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Can you sue the referee?
In its subcontracts, Mowlem insists that a barrister from a particular chambers is used. When the other party put its own man in, Mowlem threatened to sue him. What happened next?
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Coming to blows
All contractors, large and small, get into disputes at one time or another. This multimillion-pound struggle shows how overconfidence and haste can get even the biggest into a pickle.
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How much of what?
When you send your builder a notice saying you aren t going to pay the full amount asked for, do you have to say what you re withholding the money from? Well, it depends on the contract
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Pebbles that spell trouble
Remember the shoe borrower s act from last week? An ambitious attempt to protect the rights of third parties, it can hinge on opinions about intention and that could be a problem.