Legal developments, case notes and commentary from Ninety Two Chambers.
Legal commentary arranged by practice, with dated publication information and references for further research.
PUBLICATION STANDARDS & SOURCESA land development agreement may promise the landowner a share of future units and the developer a right to build. Without verification of title, approvals and possession, both parties can commit substantial value to a project that cannot lawfully.
When a company begins missing payments, directors may continue trading in the hope that the next receivable will restore liquidity. That decision can be legitimate in some circumstances and dangerous in others. The relevant legal question is what duties arise as the company's financial position deteriorates.
When an employee leaves with customer records, internal pricing, product plans or proprietary spreadsheets, a company faces two immediate questions. What information has been taken, and what legal obligations were breached in obtaining or retaining it? The answers determine whether the response should involve a contractual demand, urgent injunctive relief, a cybercrime.
A contractor may obtain a Taking-Over Certificate, demobilise its principal workforce and still face encashment of a performance guarantee. The dispute often turns on whether taking-over altered the employer's contractual entitlement and whether the bank's separate undertaking remains callable on.
A supplier may believe that the employer has wrongfully terminated a contract. A contractor may have substantial claims for unpaid milestones and extensions of time. Yet the beneficiary may still be entitled to demand payment under an unconditional bank guarantee before those underlying claims are.
A money decree establishes a right to recover an adjudicated sum, but it does not deposit that sum into the creditor's account. Execution can be difficult where the debtor has disposed of property, assets are held by related entities or the record of ownership is incomplete. Recovery strategy belongs at the.
Energy projects often fail to meet planned completion dates for reasons that cross the boundaries between engineering, public permissions and contractual administration. A delay caused by a design change may affect grid connection, equipment delivery and commissioning. Responsibility cannot be established.
Exclusivity may be commercially necessary to justify investment in a distribution network. It may also restrict competitors or customers in ways that raise questions under the Competition Act, 2010. The legal assessment depends on market effects and the structure of the arrangement, not simply whether a.
Two events may delay the same project period: an employer's late instruction and a contractor's failure to procure equipment. Whether the contractor receives additional time or prolongation cost cannot be answered by declaring that both parties were late. Concurrent delay requires a contractual and technical.
A contractor may have suffered a genuine employer-caused delay, incurred additional expenditure and maintained an extensive project record, yet face a substantial obstacle to recovery because the claim was not notified in the form and time required by the contract. Under the 2017 editions of the FIDIC forms, claims administration is not a matter to be reconstructed once a.
A startup's equity split may be agreed during an informal conversation between founders. The disagreement arises later, when one founder leaves, another attracts investment and a third claims ownership of half the business despite no longer contributing to it. Equity arrangements should anticipate those.
A contractor's dispute with a public authority can begin in the tender room and end in arbitration over unpaid milestones. The forum that can correct an unlawful tender evaluation is not necessarily the forum that can decide a later variation or termination claim. Recognising that transition prevents.