HT-2023-000321 - [2025] EWHC 1764 (TCC)

Transportation (flights) for personnel/employee

The sums claimed, ex VAT, for flights within the Pharos invoices appear to be:

The pleaded position of KML is that it accepts Pharos’s entitlement to items (1) and (2) above, subject to an uplift of 5% rather than 10%. By inference, the remaining sums appear to relate to further travel when employees were mobilised and demobilised given the extended duration of the works.

At Tab 6 of the Master Spreadsheet provided in opening, a series of points have been taken by KML in relation to the sums admitted in the pleading (e.g. that the location from which it was permissible to mobilise an employee should be restricted to LHR, rather than from elsewhere in the world).

It is not appropriate for the Court to determine these submissions insofar as they relate to categories (1) and (2) above, raised in opening for the first time, in contradiction with the pleaded position and no application to amend. This does not extend to the (pleaded) dispute as to the appropriate uplift.

It is equally inappropriate for the Court to determine an entitlement to items (3) to (5) in the absence of any evidence or submissions from Pharos as to the factual or legal entitlement to these expenses.

In light of the foregoing, the sums allowed are £11,184.11 and £12,281.76, each plus 5%, exclusive of VAT. This amounts to £24,639.16 ex VAT.

The total to which Pharos is due in respect of the disputed invoices, subject to deduction of the amount paid in respect of them and subject to any set off pursuant to the Counterclaim, is:

In respect of this, the sum of £106,248 (VAT included) has been paid. The equivalent amount ex VAT is £88,540. The amount owed, subject to set off, is therefore £507,402.76.