Category: Building and Construction Law

Quantum meruit or damages?

VCAT has ordered the owners to pay a builder $660,526.41 by way of a quantum meruit following the termination of a building contract; a sum which was “considerably more” than the builder might have recovered in a damages claim under the contract.

Paterson Constructions Pty Ltd v Mann [2016] VCAT 2100

Building and Construction Security of Payment Act: Assessment of construction work and its value

The validity of an adjudication is conditional upon the adjudicator performing the statutory task of assessing the amount of construction work and its value. In the same case, judicial review in relation to the adjudicator’s alleged incorrect finding of an available reference date was pursued, but only formally in light of Lewence [2015] NSWCA 288.

Security of Payment: What constitutes a “method of resolving disputes” and the adjudicator’s role in assessing value

In this recent decision, the Court of Appeal held that a mediation-based dispute resolution clause in a construction contract did not oust the jurisdiction of an adjudicator under Victorian security of payment legislation, and that an adjudicator is not bound by a valuation certified by a superintendent under a contract.