2017/2018
November 9, 2017
Fenwick Elliott Annual Review 2017/2018
Our Review reflects on how much still remains uncertain about Brexit and its implications for the UK construction industry. We look at what constitutes an unreasonable failure to mediate and discuss product liability: asking whether there is a limit on the level of damages awarded in actions for wrongful death arising from defective products. In our adjudication update we focus on payment notices and costs. We then look at extensions of time, concurrency and the new edition of the SCL Delay & Disruption Protocol. We discuss site conditions, focusing on who takes the risk if it turns out to be unexpectedly adverse, and explain some of the changes to be found in the new editions of the FIDIC and NEC4 forms. Our Review focuses on recent developments in arbitration in the UAE and we explain more about the first reported court case in the UK about BIM. We also discuss design obligations, addressing fitness for purpose and the MTH v E.ON case as well as considering the more literalist approach of the courts when it comes to interpreting contracts, even if this results in an unfair decision.
We follow this up with our Case Law Update, including cases from Dispatch [1] and the Construction Industry Law Letter and introduce the Fenwick Elliott Blog [2], launched this year where we provide our readers with updates on topical legal issues in the industry. You can read the articles mentioned and many more by downloading a PDF of the complete Annual Review using the "Download" button on the right. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the Annual Review please contact [email protected] [3].
Annual Review articles
Brexit means...? [4]
What constitutes an unreasonable failure to mediate? [5]
Extensions of time: contiguous or non-contiguous? That was the question [8]
Construction professionals beware: has the test for reasonable skill and care been weakened? [9]
Unexpected, unforeseeable, unaware? Site conditions – “contractors should beware!” [10]
A Yellow Book tale: termination, letters of credit and a question of fraud [12]
Responsibility for concurrent delay [13]
Notices [14]
Recent developments in the UAE: arbitration [15]
[15]The first reported UK BIM case: Trant v Mott MacDonald [16]
Design obligations: fitness for purpose [17]
The SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol: a second edition [18]