Prevention or Cure? Delay Claims and the Rise of Concurrency Clauses

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Coulson

June 2019

A paper based on the Pinsent Masons Lecture given in Hong Kong on 15th November 2018 and presented to the Society of Construction Law at a meeting in London on 5th February 2019.

The paper addresses a number of related issues which tend to arise in contested delay claims. In particular, The Rt Hon Lord Justice Coulson examines the scope and possible limits of the prevention principle and the importance of contractual extension of time provisions. He goes on to consider the problems caused by concurrent delay, the recent rise in the popularity of concurrency clauses and in particular the Court of Appeal's judgment in North Midland Building Ltd v Cyden Homes Ltd, the first reported case in which a concurrency clause has been considered by the court.

Introduction - The legal background -The doctrine of prevention - Extension of time provisions - Concurrent delay - Concurrency clause - Conclusions

The author: The Rt Hon Lord Justice Coulson is a Lord Justice of Appeal and Deputy Head of Civil Justice. He is the President of The Society of Construction Law.

Text: 12 pages