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Andrew Butler wins in the Court of Appeal

6th July 2015

Andrew Butler has won a notable victory in the Court of Appeal.

Andrew represented an environmental consultancy, Carbon Smart Ltd., who had provided services as part of a European Community-funded programme to improve the environmental performance of small and medium-sized businesses in London. Carbon Smart’s invoices for their services had not been paid, it being alleged by the Defendant (the lead contractor on the programme) that they had failed to provide sufficient evidence of the work undertaken to unlock funding. The case gave rise to issues of contractual formation, construction, entire obligation, estoppel, exclusion clauses and UCTA. The Court of Appeal expressed the view that the contractual requirements were “of considerable complexity”.

A judge at first instance had dismissed Carbon Smart’s claim for their fees, leaving the small company not only without recovery for a substantial amount of work, but also facing a significant costs liability. The Court of Appeal, consisting of Longmore and Jackson LJJ and Hildyard J, allowed the appeal, and by virtue of beating a series of pre-trial Part 36 offers Carbon Smart were also able to recover indemnity costs, interest at 10% above base and the additional 10% recovery permitted by CPR Part 36.17.

The judgment in Carbon Smart v Prevista [2015] EWCA Civ 668 can be found here.

 

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