CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FRUSTRATED BY ILL HEALTH OF BUILDER

In Atwal v Rochester [2010] EWHC 2338 (TCC), Judge Kirkham held that a contract to undertake extensive building work on a family home was frustrated when the builder suffered a heart attack, the consequence of which was that he was given medical advice not to return to work. The contract was held to be a personal contract because the builder was known personally to the claimants, his price was very substantially below the market price and the claimants knew from the outset that there was no one to whom the builder could entrust the work if he was unable himself to continue with it. It followed that the builder was not in breach of contract in failing to complete the work and that he was entitled to recover a ‘just sum’ in respect of the work which he had done under the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943.