Bovis in claims battle

Bovis Lend Lease has failed in a High Court move to bring an early end to a multi-million pound claim it has launched against client Braehead Glasgow over the Braehead shopping centre.

Bovis had sought immediate judgment in respect of two claims totalling over £8.8m, but Mr Justice Dyson dismissed the move because he considered Braehead had a real prospect of successfully defending the case. He said: "I am not satisfied that, if the claim went to trial, Bovis would obtain judgment for a substantial, or indeed any, amount from Braehead."

However, he said that Braehead claimed, among other things, that it was entitled to set off a counterclaim for damages for breaches of contract and that it had provisionally quantified the damages as exceeding £16m. Braehead alleged that Bovis had failed to properly manage the work or exercise proper cost control and was responsible for extensive defective work. Bovis argued the claims for damages were "wholly without foundation".

Braehead also claimed it was arguably entitled to deduct liquidated and ascertained damages (LADs) of almost £7m for late completion. Dyson said that he considered Braehead had an arguable entitlement to deduct LADs in the sum of £6.64m.

Dyson added that Braehead's counterclaim contained more than 150 separate allegations and he was convinced that Braehead had a real prospect of succeeding on its counterclaim to a substantial extent.

The judge commented: "Bovis knew that the two valuations were not met by Braehead because of Braehead's concern about the massive and unexpected increases in cost and the time overrun that became apparent in 1999. In December 1999 and January 2000, sensible and constructive proposals were being discussed between the parties as to how to resolve their differences. For a reason which has not been explained to me, Bovis decided to resort to litigation rather than seek to negotiate further with Braehead."