A building contract contained the following clause:-‘ Twelfth, The Company reserve power during the progress of the work to make any alterations, additions, or deductions, or to vary from or alter the plans or materials as they may consider advisable, without in any respect vitiating this contract. This shall only be done under a written order from the Company’s engineer, and allowance will be made for such alterations at the rates in the schedule. The contractors shall not at their own hand, or without a written order from the Company’s engineer, be entitled to make any such alterations or additions, and no allegation by the contractors of knowledge of acquiescence in such alterations or additions on the part of the Company, their engineers or inspectors, shall be accepted or available as equivalent to the certificate of the engineer, or as in any way superseding the necessity of such certificate as the sole warrant for such alterations or additions.’ In a claim for payment on account of greater weight of metal in certain iron girders than was specified in the contract, where it was contended that there had been verbal consent and acquiescence on the part of the employers, and that the extra weight had been certified under the certificates of the defenders’ engineer- held [ rev. judgment of majority of Court of Session] that the terms of the contract excluded any such claim as was made, looking to the circumstances of the case, and to the fact that the forms of certificate by the engineer did not in any way bear out the view that there had been a ratification.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor, Lord Hatherley, Lord Blackburn, and Lord Gordon
Citations:
[1878] UKHL 777, 15 SLR 777
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Construction
Updated: 11 October 2022; Ref: scu.646308
