Ministry of Defence v Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners
Citation: BLR 20
Nature of case:
In this dispute in the Court of Appeal the MOD had engaged consulting engineers and buildings contractors to refurbish a roof of a dockyard. The engineers delegated their supervisory powers to the site control officer. The roof was defective and the MOD claimed for breach of contract. The main issue on appeal was whether there was a variation issued by the MOD which constituted formal instructions under the contract or informal conversations amounted to a waiver or estoppel preventing the MOD from relying on strict compliance with the contract. The contractors also appealed against the apportionment of liability between the themselves and the engineers.
