Cases - Crosby Ltd v Portland UDC

Record details

Name

Crosby Ltd v Portland UDC

Date

[1967]

Citation

5 BLR 121

Keywords

Construction - litigation - loss and expenses - ICE 4th Conditions of Contract - interpretation - individual awards - individual items of claim - supplementary award

Summary

This case was specifically concerned with the interpretation of the ICE 4th edition Conditions of Contract, but is nevertheless of current and broad importance for that part of the judgment that deals with the principles of rolled-up (or global) claims.

In this case, Donaldson J decided that where:

'the extent of the extra cost incurred depends upon an extremely complex interaction between the consequences of the various denials, suspensions and variations, it may well be difficult or even impossible to make an accurate apportionment of the total extra cost between the several causative events...I can see no reason why [the arbitrator] should not recognise the realities of the situation and make individual awards in respect of those parts of individual items of the claim which can be dealt with in isolation and a supplementary award in respect of the remainder of those claims as a composite whole.'

This case does not support an entitlement calculated on the basis of total cost less tender value. Rather, it confirms that provided that entitlement has been proven and there is no duplication or inclusion of disallowed costs, the contractor's claim will not usually be dismissed simply because it is not feasible to allocate the money due against individual heads of claim.

It should also be recognised that the increased opportunities now available for accessing and processing vast amounts of information quickly and cheaply, together with the increased awareness among contractors of the need to keep accurate and detailed records, may limit the courts' inclination to accept rolled-up claims.