Construction Contract in UK Law

Leading Cases
  • Whitworth Street Estates (Manchester) Ltd v James Miller and Partners Ltd
    • House of Lords
    • 03 March 1970

    I must say that I had thought that it is now well settled that it is not legitimate to use as an aid in the construction of the contract anything which the parties said or did after it was made. Otherwise one might have the result that a contract meant one thing the day it was signed, but by reason of subsequent events meant something different a month or a year later.

  • Antaios Compania Naviera S.A. v Salen Rederierna A.B.
    • House of Lords
    • 26 July 1984

    While deprecating the extension of the use of the expression "purposive construction" from the interpretation of statutes to the interpretation of private contracts, I agree with the passage I have cited from the arbitrators' award and I take this opportunity of re-stating that if detailed semantic and syntactical analysis of words in a commercial contract is going to lead to a conclusion that flouts business commonsense, it must be made to yield to business commonsense.

  • Rainy Sky SA and Others v Kookmin Bank
    • Supreme Court
    • 02 November 2011

    If there are two possible constructions, the court is entitled to prefer the construction which is consistent with business common sense and to reject the other.

  • Davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham Urban District Council
    • House of Lords
    • 19 April 1956

    So perhaps it would be simpler to say at the outset that frustration occurs whenever the law recognises that without default of either party a contractual obligation has become incapable of being performed because the circumstances in which performance is called for would render it a thing radically different from that which was undertaken by the contract.

  • Hillas & Company Ltd v Arcos Ltd
    • House of Lords
    • 05 July 1932

    Business men often record the most important agreements in crude and summary fashion: modes of expression sufficient and clear to them in the course of their business may appear to those unfamiliar with the business far from complete or precise. It is accordingly the duty of the Court to construe such documents fairly and broadly, without being too astute or subtle in finding defects, but, on the contrary, the Court should seek to apply the old maxim of English law,

  • Trollope & Colls Ltd v North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board
    • House of Lords
    • 10 April 1973

    An unexpressed term can be implied if and only if the Court finds that the parties must have intended that term to form part of their contract: it is not enough for the Court to find that such a term would have been adopted by the parties as reasonable men if it had been suggested to them: it must have been a term that went without saying, a term necessary to give business efficacy to the contract, a term which, though tacit, formed part of the contract which the parties made for themselves.

  • Wickman Machine Tool Sales Ltd v L. Schuler A.G.
    • House of Lords
    • 04 April 1973

    The fact that a particular construction leads to a very unreasonable result must be a relevant consideration. The more unreasonable the result the more unlikely it is that the parties can have intended it, and if they do intend it the more necessary it is that they shall make that intention abundantly clear.

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Legislation
  • Scheme for Construction Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations 1998
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1998
    ... ... The Scheme for Construction Contracts The Scheme for Construction Contracts ... Where a construction contract does not comply with the ... 2. Where a construction contract does not comply with the requirements of section 108(1) to (4) of the Act, the ... ...
  • Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1943
    ... ... (1) Where a contract governed by English law has ... become impossible of performance or been ... any provision which, upon the true construction of the contract, ... is intended to have effect in the event of ... ...
  • Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1996
    ... ... Part II: Construction contracts ... Introductory provisions ... 104: Construction contracts ... (1) In this Part a “construction contract” means an agreement with a person for any of the following—(a) the carrying out of construction operations;(b) arranging for the carrying out of ... ...
  • Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1999
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Books & Journal Articles
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Law Firm Commentaries
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