The Owners – Strata Plan No 77475 v Walker Group Constructions Pty Ltd & Anor [2016] NSWSC 1127

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: The Owners – Strata Plan No 77475 v Walker Group Constructions Pty Ltd & Anor [2016] NSWSC 1127 Hearing dates: 20 July 2016 Date of orders: 16 August 2016 Decision date: 16 August 2016 Jurisdiction: Equity - Technology and Construction List Before: Bergin CJ in Eq Decision: Applications for rejection of parts of Referee's Report to be dismissed. Referee's Report (exclusive of the section on preliminaries) to be adopted. Catchwords: REFEREES - nature of proceedings on challenge to Referee's Report

DAMAGES - where plaintiff relied upon expert's advice in respect of the scope of works to rectify defects - where defendants had warned plaintiff that scope of works was exploratory, speculative and not urgent - where findings made that the work carried out was not urgent - where works found to be unnecessary and excessive - where Referee found that defendants not liable for such work - whether those aspects of Referee's Report should be rejected

DAMAGES - where failure to comply with relevant Standard - where technical breach - whether plaintiff entitled to remedial work to achieve contractual conformity Legislation Cited: Home Building Act 1989 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 Cases Cited: Banco de Portugal v Waterlow & Sons Ltd [1932] AC 452 Bellgrove v Eldridge (1954) 90 CLR 613 Board of Governors of the Hospital of Sick Children v McLaughlin & Harvey Plc (1987) 19 ConLR 25 Chocolate Factory Apartments v Westpoint Finance [2005] NSWSC 784 Clippens Oil Co Ltd v Edinburgh and District Water Trustees [1907] SC (HL) 9 Lodge Holes Colliery Company Limited v Mayor of Wednesbury [1908] AC 323 McGlinn v Waltham Contractors Ltd & Ors (No 3) [2007] EWHC 149 (TCC) Mirant Asia-Pacific Construction (Hong Kong) Ltd v Ove Arup & Partners International Ltd & Anor [2007] EWHC 918 (TCC) Radford v De Froberville [1977] 1 WLR 1262 Ruxley Electronics & Constructions Ltd v Forsyth [1996] AC 344 Super Pty Ltd v SJP Formwork (Aust) Pty Ltd (1992) 29 NSWLR 549 Tabcorp Holdings Ltd v Bowen Investments Pty Ltd (2009) 236 CLR 272 The Owners-Strata Plan 76674 v Di Blasio Constructions Pty Ltd [2014] NSWSC 1067 Category: Principal judgment Parties: The Owners – Strata Plan No 77475 (Plaintiff) Walker Group Constructions Pty Ltd (1st Defendant) Walker Corporation Pty Ltd (2nd Defendant) Representation: Counsel: DS Weinberger (Plaintiff) MG Rudge SC/FP Hicks (Defendants)