Cases - Neodox v Swinton and Pendlebury

Record details

Name

Neodox v Swinton and Pendlebury

Date

(1958)

Citation

5 BLR 38

Keywords

Contract - contract to construct sewage works - payment - works to be carried out under engineer's direction and with reasonable skill and care - no express method of carrying out works - variations - whether the engineer's direction to carry out the works in a particular manner was a variation

Summary

The claimant contracted to construct sewage works for the defendant council. The contract gave to the engineer the power to determine the method by which works were to be executed, such as the excavation of trenches where alternative methods were possible. The Court found that whilst the engineer's decision as to whether one method or another is satisfactory to him must be an honest one, the defendant did not warrant his competency or skill, or warrant that his decision would be reasonable. Diplock J considered that in a contract in which there was no specific method of carrying out particular operations necessary to complete the works set out, and which provided merely that they should be carried out under the engineer's directions and in the best manner to his satisfaction, it was difficult to see how a direction by the engineer intimating the manner in which the operations must be carried out in order to satisfy him could be a 'variation of or addition to the works'.