DELAY AND TIME OF THE ESSENCE

Shawton Engineering Ltd v DGP International Ltd [2005] EWCA Civ 1359; [2006] BLR 1

In Shawton Engineering Ltd v DGP International Ltd [2005] EWCA Civ 1359; [2006] BLR 1 the Court of Appeal held that contractors were not entitled to terminate a contract with sub-contractors on account of the delay on the part of the sub-contractors in completing the works. The contractors could not show that the parties had agreed to make time of performance of the essence of the contract, nor could they show that the failure of the sub-contractors to complete the works within a reasonable time was a fundamental breach such that the effect of the breach was substantially to deprive the contractors of the whole benefit of the promised contractual performance.