No entitlement to interim payment beyond date for practical completion

In Balfour Beatty Regional Construction Ltd v Grove Developments Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 990 the Court of Appeal held, by a majority, that the contract between the parties provided for interim payments to stop at the contractual date for practical completion. This was held to be ‘a classic case of one party making a bad bargain’ and the majority were not willing to use the principles applicable to the interpretation of contracts in order to rescue the defendant from that bad bargain. Commercial common sense can only come to the rescue of a contracting party if it is clear what the parties intended, or would have intended, to happen in the circumstances which subsequently arose. This standard was not satisfied on the facts of the present case. Nor were the majority willing to imply a term into the contract which entitled the defendant to interim payments beyond the date for practical completion. The defendant was therefore required to wait for further payment until the final payment date as defined in the contract between the parties.