Nicholas Gould
Solicitor at Fenwick Elliott
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Regulation wear
This was an appeal against a decision that an employer did not have a duty to an employee under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 Regulations 7 (1). The employer was a lorry driver collecting milk from farms. He had been supplied with steel capped safety boots, which ...
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Vital surface issues
This was an appeal by the claimant from the first instance decision dismissing a claim for damages arising from an accident. A child, K, was playing in a communal garden controlled by Portsmouth City Council. She tripped on stone in a gravel path leading to the garden and sustained an ...
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Record time
Following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001, JDM entered into a contract with DEFRA to construct burial sites and infrastructure works. Under the contract, JDM was to be paid a reasonable rate for such labour and materials as it provided. JDM produced timesheets to back up its ...
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A question of currency
This was an appeal by the defendant, Manuel Revert, from a decision of His Honour Judge Hegarty QC delivered on 6 December 2002. The Judge ordered that the claimant, Virani Limited, was entitled to damages which were to be assessed in US dollars. Manuel was a purchaser of cloth, while ...
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Disclosure
The defendant hospital had applied for an order for inspection under CPR 31.4(2) in respect of a witness statement and an earlier expert report referred to in expert reports produced for a personal injury claim. The appellant, Mr Lucas, resisted this application on the basis that the documents were excluded ...
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Take the alternative
The claimant was a landlord seeking to determine whether or not notices served by the tenant to terminate a lease were valid. At trial, the tenant's first notice was held to validly terminate the lease, except in respect of an area known as the store room. The tenant therefore argued ...
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A hitch in time
This was an appeal by the claimant, VAI, from a decision of 30 October 2002 striking out the particulars of claim on the basis that the claim was statute barred. On 5 September 1994 Davy (later taken over by VAI) entered into a contract with Bostock for the supply of ...
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Reveal all before you decide
Stansell was a building contractor carrying out work in Union Street, Bristol. It engaged RSL as a subcontractor. The subcontract was based on the Standard Form of Domestic Sub-contract DOM/2 1981 edition (reprinted in 1998) incorporating amendments 1-8. Clause 38 contained adjudication provisions. A dispute arose in ...
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A tax on costs
The Edinburgh Royal Joint Venture was set up to design and build a new royal infirmary and medical school. Zenith Contract Interiors was a subcontractor to the defenders for plasterboard partitioning. A provisional liquidator was appointed to Zenith and the subcontract works were novated from Zenith to Deko Scotland. Pursuant ...
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Setting the record straight
The contractor carried out works to a residential home. The contract was, therefore, not a "construction contract" as defined in the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. However, the contract was the JCT Minor Works, 1998 edition including MW11. The amendment incorporated adjudication provisions and so the parties were ...
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Held to account
The pursuers, Va Tech and the Miller Group, entered into a construction consortium agreement. In accordance with that agreement they were to jointly offer to design, procure and construct a sludge treatment centre at Daldowie and, if their bid was successful, carry out those works. The offer was successful: Va ...
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In the docks
In 1997 the Ministry of Defence employed Devonport Royal Dockyard (DML) as main contractor for the upgrading of a dockyard. In turn, DML employed Carillion to upgrade the number nine dock, and provide new buildings and associated infrastructure. That contract was contained in two documents, a subcontract and an alliance ...
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An industry turned upside down
Something miraculous occurred this week. The dirty, smelly, low-status construction industry suddenly became the year's hottest career option.
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"Not valid" is no decision at all
The petitioner, Ballast Plc, was a management contractor for a development for the respondent, the Burrell Company, in Glasgow. The terms of the contract were a JCT form of management contract 1987 edition. A dispute arose in respect of the valuations. The amount of the valuations fluctuated, and that dispute ...