Further Evidence In Claim Over Contract

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 15

Further Evidence In Claim Over Contract

The roofing contractor for Cashin quay transit shed had from his point of view made satisfactory progress once cladding had been commenced, the Harbour Board’s inspector for the contract (Ledlie Gilmore) told Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court yesterday. In the action now in its third day of hearing, the roofing contractor (John Burns and Company Ltd) (Mr C. E. Purchase, with him Mr J. H. M. Dawson) is claiming £2545 15s 3d as the amount owing on the contract, plus interest on that amount and £2OOO general damages from John Calder, Ltd., the principal contractors (Mr P. H. T. Alpers, with him Mr P. C. M. Straubel). John Calder, Ltd., is counter-claiming £2645 15s 3d —£1995 0s 3d as general damages and the remainder as additional expenses owing because of delays in completing the contract. To Mr Purchase, Gilmore said he would not say the roofing contractor had done the job quickly after commencing cladding the walls and roof on September 28. "However they had made progress.” John Burns and Company Ltd had had trouble moving

their scaffold because of the “terrible roughness” of the shed floor. Mr Johnson, of John Burns and Company Ltd, had complained both to him and to Calder’s foreman about the condition of the floor and had told him it might be necessary to stop work because of that, he said. When It was put to him that John Burns and Company Ltd had had to face difficulties, including the fact that the steelwork painter was not sufficiently far in front of the roofer, he replied: “The painter was shrewd enough to keep in front of John Burns and Company and was at times close behind the steelworker.” From his point of view the roofing contractor had made satisfactory progress in finishing the roof on December 23 when the painter had finished on December 18. Cross-examined he agreed that the steel-worker did not need to be taken into account after John Bums and Company Ltd had started on the roofing and the painter had kept ahead of the roofers and at time was well ahead. The hearing will continue today.