IPOH GARDEN BERHAD (AUST) PTY LTD v AW EDWARDS PTY LTD [1989] NSWCA 104

IPOH GARDEN BERHAD (AUST) PTY LTD v AW EDWARDS PTY LTD

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

MAHONEY, PRIESTLY and MEAGHER JJA 24 August 1989, 19 October 1989 [1989] NSWCA 104

BUILDING CONTRACT — CONSTRUCTION OF CL405(h) OF AUSTRALIAN STANDARD METHOD OF MEASUREMENT OF BUILDING WORKS — "ALLOWANCE FOR WORKING SPACE"

Mahoney JA This appeal concerns the payment to be made the respondent builder in respect of the construction of a pedestrian tunnel from the Queen Victoria Building to the Grace Bros Department Store. It concerns, in particular, the payment to be made for excavation of pits for footings. Under the contract the payment to be made in respect of each cubic metre of excavation was specified and, subject to adjustments permitted by the contract, the quantity of the excavation was also specified. In the present case, the cubic metres to be excavated in respect of the matters here in question were specified as 98 cubic metres and 83 cubic metres.

However, it is agreed that payment is to be made in addition to this. The work to be done fell literally within the terms of CL405(h) of the Australian Standard Method of Measurement of Building Works, authorised by agreement between The Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors and The Master Builders' Federation of Australia. (The court has been referred to the fourth edition of that Standard, January 1980).

The appeal has proceeded upon the basis that the amount to be paid to the builder for such excavation is to be increased by adding to the quantity to be excavated as provided in the contract an amount, at the contract rate, for an additional space calculated in accordance with CL405(h) of the ASMM.

It is agreed that CL405(h) applies because the work in question required formwork exceeding one metre high and because the work required workmen to operate from the outside, within the terms of that clause.