CERTIFICATION IN CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS

Henry Boot Construction Ltd v Alstom Combined Cycles Ltd [2005] EWCA Civ 814, [2005] 3 All ER 932

In Henry Boot Construction Ltd v Alstom Combined Cycles Ltd [2005] EWCA Civ 814, [2005] 3 All ER 932, the Court of Appeal held that in a standard form construction contract which provided for payment to the contractor on certificates issued by an engineer, the right to payment arose when a certificate was issued or ought to have been issued, and not when the work was done. The court further held that a failure by the engineer to perform his obligations in relation to an interim certificate did not start time running in relation to a cause of action based on a failure by the engineer to perform his obligations in relation to the final account, since the two causes of action were not the same. Finally, the Court of Appeal held that the right to claim interest on a sum which should have been certified became statute-barred six years after that right accrued. Once a sum of money was overdue for payment in a particular month, the cause of action was complete in respect of that overdue payment, whether the cause of action resulted from a failure to pay the particular sum when it had been certified, or from the engineer’s failure to certify that sum.