JCW

Justin was the counsel for the Appellant in this Appeal before the Court of Appeal. This appeal involved a complicated building contract claim where the findings of the High Court were overturned by the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal allowed the Appeal and amongst other, held that :- (i) The Respondent/ Plaintiff’s complaint on the failure by the Appellant to produce a “Method Statement” is not pleaded and the High Court Judge ought not to have considered this ground at all; (ii) Further, a careful examination of Clause 15 of the Instruction to Tenderers will reveal that it is not the Appellant’s responsibility to produce the “Method Statement” but instead the responsibility of the Respondent; (iii) By various contemporaneous correspondences, the Appellant had made known to the Respondent of the delay of work and the only response was to request for an extension of time; (iv) The Respondent did not comply with the relevant clauses in the contract for extension of time; and (v) The complaint by the Respondent on the purchase of building materials is devoid of merits as the Respondent had agreed pursuant to Tender Questionnaire that all major building materials has to be purchased from the Appellant. The Court of Appeal allowed the Appeal and after evaluating the evidence, were constrained to rule that this is a fit and proper case for Appellate intervention.