swarb.co.uk - law index
These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.
Construction - From: 1996 To: 1996
This page lists 12 cases, and was prepared on 20 May 2019.
Oswald v Countrywide Surveyors Ltd (1996) 50 Con LR 1
1996
Construction, Damages
The evidential burden of establishing betterment is on the defendant.
1 Citers
John Barker Construction Ltd v London Portman Hotel Ltd; 1996 - (1996) 83 BLR 31
John Holland Construction and Engineering Pty Ltd v Kvaerner R J Brown Pty Ltd [1996] 82 BLR 83
1996
Byrne J
Construction
(Supreme Court of Victoria) The defendant applied to strike out substantial parts of a statement of claim on grounds including that the defendant faced allegations that by reason of breaches of contract the plaintiff had suffered loss of damage, particulars of which were given in a schedule A in which the loss and damage was calculated in terms of the difference between the tender estimate for the part in question and its actual cost. The defendant attacked the pleading on the grounds that such an allegation was embarrassing since it did not establish a causal link between the breach and the damage alleged. Held: The court considered the treatment of global claims, that is claims where the claimant does not seek to attribute any specific loss to a specific breach of contract, but is content to allege a composite loss as a result of all the breaches alleged: "Where the loss is caused by a breach of contract, causation for the purposes of a claim for damages must be determined by the application of common sense to the logical principles of causation" and "it is possible to say that a given loss was in law caused by a particular act or omission notwithstanding that other acts or omissions played a part in its occurrence. It is sufficient that the breach be a material cause... This last matter may be of particular importance in a case like the present where a number of potential causal factors may be present." The court noted that a global claim had been held to be permissible in the case where it was impracticable to disentangle that part of the loss which is attributable to each head of claim. The particular claim under consideration was a total cost claim: "The logic of such a claim is this: the contractor might reasonably have expected to perform the work for a particular sum, usually the contract price; the proprietor committed breaches of contract; the actual reasonable cost of the work was a sum greater than the expected cost.
The logical consequence implicit in this is that the proprietor's breaches caused that extra cost or cost overrun. This implication is valid only so long as, and to the extent that, the three propositions are proved and a further unstated one is accepted: the proprietor's breaches represent the only causally significant factor responsible for the difference between the expected cost and the actual cost. ... The unstated assumption underlying the inference may be further analysed. What is involved here is two things: first, the breaches of contract caused some extra cost; secondly, the contractor's cost overrun is this extra cost. ... It is the second aspect of the unstated assumption ... which is likely to cause the more obvious problem because it involves an allegation that the breaches of contract were the material cause of all of the contractor's cost overrun. This involves an assertion that, given that the breaches of contract caused some extra cost, they must have caused the whole of the extra cost because no other relevant cause was responsible for any part of it."
1 Citers
North West Thames Regional Health Authority v Shephard Robson (A Firm) and Others; CA 23-Jan-1996 - Times, 23 January 1996; Ind Summary, 12 February 1996
Invercargill City Council v Hamlin; PC 12-Feb-1996 - Times, 15 February 1996; 50 Con LR 105; [1996] AC 624; [1996] UKPC 56; 78 BLR 78; [1996] 1 NZLR 513; [1996] 1 All ER 756
Commissioners of Customs and Excise v St Mary's Roman Catholic School Times, 15 July 1996
15 Jul 1996
QBD
VAT, Construction
Services must have temporary link to construction of new building if zero rated.
Value Added Tax Act 1983 Sch 5 Grp 8 Itm 2
GJK Construction Limited ex parte v Pioneer Asphalts (Uk) Limited [1996] EWCA Civ 923
11 Nov 1996
CA
Construction
[ Bailii ]
Louis v Sadiq; CA 22-Nov-1996 - Gazette, 13 December 1996; Times, 22 November 1996; [1997] 1 EGLR 136
Oak Tree Leisure Limited v R A Fisk and Associates; W Fearnley and Sons (Salford) Limited [1996] EWCA Civ 1041
26 Nov 1996
CA
Construction
[ Bailii ]
Commissioners for Customs and Excise v Marchday Holdings Limited Times, 20 December 1996; Gazette, 29 January 1997; [1996] EWCA Civ 1171
11 Dec 1996
CA
VAT, Construction
Extensive work on an existing building may be more than a conversion and therefore may be zero-rated.
Value Added Tax Act 1983 Grp 8 Sch 5 Note 1A
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Drake and Scull Engineering Limited v J Jarvis and Sons Plc [1996] EWCA Civ 1242
18 Dec 1996
CA
Construction
[ Bailii ]
Flood v Shand Construction Limited; Morrison Shand Construction Limited and Morrison Construction Limited Times, 08 January 1997; [1996] EWCA Civ 1241
18 Dec 1996
CA
Construction, Contract
A clause limiting an assignment to sums due and payable did not include the costs of investigation.
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]