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

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

Fecha: 17-May-2024

Section 104

801.

First, it can be the seen that the ‘negative’ transaction sum is a feature of both the TCS and the DBS construction in year 2, the calculation of which is common to both sides’ approach. The production of a negative sum is, therefore, of itself not a feature which should be considered particularly remarkable or a basis upon which to judge one construction as correct or not. It is the arithmetic function of an extremely high number of transactions, very significantly above the predicted volume. Second, as DBS submitted, whilst the model produces a negative number, there is no contractual mechanism for payment from TCS to DBS and so in reality, a negative number is equivalent to zero. If the negative numbers are substituted for zero, then over the 4 years, the DBS calculation provides for £3,000 aggregate income (against £4,000 Forecast Revenue) and TCS’s calculation produces £2,400. The overall effect is, therefore, that the DBS model produces an aggregate recovery that is more ‘broadly’ in line with the aggregate Forecast Recovery than TCS’s calculation. The conclusion that the example demonstrates the uncommercial outcome generated by DBS’s construction does not follow.

802.

In coming to this conclusion, I make clear that I do not place any weight on DBS’s argument that the clause should be construed in the context of the International Financial Report Standards in IFRS.