Now for some magic! This post is about invisible clauses. Implied Terms If your contract does not have enough terms to be workable, clauses can be added (implied) to make it work properly. They can be added as a result of: Custom [read more] Laws or statutes [read more] Cases
As a supplier on a construction project, English law allows you to use The Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 to pass on some of the losses claimed against you. You can ask for a contribution from any other contractor, supplier or consultant who is responsible for the same damage [see
I was asked to sign a framework agreement recently [read more] that said it did not create mutual obligations. I refused as that clause showed a fundamental misunderstanding of what a contract does. This was not the first time I had seen this type of clause … Mutual obligations A
As Ken Adams says in his blog on the Nexus Between Contracts and the Law, contracts cannot exist without the courts to interpret, intervene and implement their terms, including by: Deciding whether individual terms in the contract are fair; Deciding whether your contract meets the formalities required; Deciding whether your
Your knowledge of the law is irrelevant to your liability. Given that you have to comply (whatever your contract or conscience says), why do most contracts require the parties to comply with statutory requirements? Clarity Although ‘ignorance is no defence’, contracts are tools to help the parties to understand their
Recently I came across a contact who had a standard footer on her emails, not about saving the environment but that ‘Any offers made in an email or attachments are subject to contract.’ It’s not just the lawyers who throw caution to the wind and bandy about ‘subject to contract’.
When is an offer not an offer but the award of a contract? When its a snake in the grass? The TCC recently has to grapple with the rights of the parties under a framework agreement, in unusual circumstances. What is a framework agreement? A framework agreement normally allows an
Can you amend a bonded (or guaranteed) contract without the beneficiary losing its rights to claim under the associated bond? This was the decision of the Court of Appeal in Hackney Empire v Aviva which has received more coverage than most bond cases. Is it because the case decided a
With any bond and all guarantees, it is imperative that the document continues to provide a form of surety throughout the life of a project. That means the document has to continue to bite even where there are changes to the project: whether that is changes to the scope, the
A few years ago, a developer (Gubbins) appointed an engineering firm (Grimes) for a housing development. Grimes agreed to design a road and the drainage, and obtain the relevant s38 agreement (for adoption of the road by the local authority). That work had to be completed by March 2007. It