Cases - Dew Pitchmastic plc v Birse Construction Ltd

Record details

Name

Dew Pitchmastic plc v Birse Construction Ltd

Date

[2000]; [2000]

Citation

EWHC Technology 169; 78 Con LR 162, T&CC

Keywords

Expert witness

Summary

Where the defendants in a construction dispute failed to adhere to the timetable for instructing experts (they did not instruct them in time nor get them to meet their obligations in time), the court would have to consider whether the position of the claimants would be jeopardised. The defendants' defaults in this case were so serious that there was a real danger that, by the time of the trial, the claimants would not know the case they had to meet.

Accordingly, no further extension of time would be granted to the defendants and permission to call expert witnesses would be refused:

'A party cannot be allowed to get away with thinking that it can comply with the timetable as and when it is ready to do so.'