HT-2020-000448 - [2024] EWHC 1185 (TCC)
Technology and Construction Court

HT-2020-000448 - [2024] EWHC 1185 (TCC)

Fecha: 17-May-2024

R1-D Delay

R1-D Delay

472.

DBS claim sums capped at £10m for delays between 28 November 2017 and 19 September 2018 which the Schedule of Loss describes as costs relating to ‘non-delivery’ of R1-D.

473.

On the basis of my findings, TCS were not responsible for Delay in excess of 6 months from the date of the commencement of TCS’s claim (28 November 2017), for the purposes of Clause 6.3. This means that DBS is not entitled to a general damages claim.

474.

Even if DBS is correct in its (unexplained and unpleaded) case that the Milestone should be treated as having remained as 28 November 2016 as opposed to 28 November 2017, which is the date from which its claim for delay commences, and a claim for general damages for delay to R1-D is permissible in principle, it is permissible only for the period from 28 November 2017 to 5 February 2018, from which point on DBS is estopped from claiming that TCS is in culpable delay and (from 13 June 2018) there is ‘AUTHORITYCause’ which precludes any claim for breach by DBS. I have also found that TCS is not responsible for non-delivery of R1-D after it had been unlawfully removed from its scope of work and/or that (contrary to my primary analysis) this period would in any event amount to ‘AUTHORITYCause’. The costs of maintaining or refreshing its existing R0 platform were caused by DBS’s wrongful removal of R1-D from 19 September 2019 and are not recoverable. If DBS had not removed R1-D, TCS would have taken (as I have found) around a year to complete R1-D. During this period, TCS may (but for DBS’s failure to have complied with Clause 6), have been liable for Delay Payments. However, as at the date of the wrongful removal of R1-D, that entitlement lay in the future, in respect of delay beyond the Milestone Date which had not yet accrued.

475.

Against this, I consider the heads of loss pleaded as Schedule of Loss items 4 to 8.