C SPENCER LTD v MW HIGH TECH PROJECTS UK LTD

[2020] EWCA Civ 331, Court of Appeal (Civil Division), Senior President of Tribunals, Coulson and Baker LJJ, 6 March 2020

Contract – Hybrid contract involving both construction and non-construction operations – Whether payment notice, in order to be valid, was required to distinguish between construction and non-construction operations

The claimant was employed by the defendant as a sub-contractor on a project to design and construct a power plant which was capable of processing refuse derived fuel produced by commercial and industrial waste and municipal solid waste. The claimant was engaged to design and construct the civil, structural and architectural works. It was common ground between the parties that the subcontract works included work that amounted to “construction operations” within the meaning of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (the 1996 Act) but that it also included work that did not fall within that definition.