CONTRACT MANAGEMENT



Contract Management

Contract Management

Introduction

Mr Nash was a businessman. He carried a business as a decorator and general building contractor. He made a claim about the failure of contract on Tonbridge Estates (Sussex) Limited, which is a limited liability company. It carried out construction projects. One of such projects included the redevelopment of property known as The Sussex Stud at Cowfold, West Grinstead in Sussex. The objective of the redevelopment was to provide a number of units for residential accommodation. There were a total of 21 units. Mr Nash used to work for units from 9 to 19 only.

Discussion

Both the parties worked with each other on an informal basis. Mr Nash mentioned all the price about specification, and he took assistance from Mr Alex who is a quantity surveyor. Mr Linwood had sent a letter to Messrs Fryatt on 8th August, 2001. Mr Nash gave this letter, and the letter was itself undated.

It was clear that Mr Linwood did not have any intention to do any work, and it was not an appropriate offer on the first place. It was just a step forward in the negotiation between the parties. The prices set out in the attachment were Budget Prices (Cohen & Eimicke, 2008, pp. 200-210).

The letter explained that, contracting party's needs to discuss on various issues related to the negotiation of prices of items. The attached budget prices included prices of certain items, and prices of some of the items were provisional.

On the next day, Mr Linwood sent another letter to Mr Fryatt. This letter had the date of 9th August. The prices of central heating, plumbing, electrical, soil and vent pipes were mentioned. Prices of the additional items added to the prices of items mentioned in the previous letter to give it a running total. The total amount of the budget price came to £437,868 (Haug, 2010, pp. pp. 110-130).

Mr Fryatt had sent Mr Nash a letter on 22nd September, 2001. Mr Fryatt is not only the president of Fryatt Associates, but also the director and shareholder of the defendant company, Tonbridge Estates (Sussex) Limited. The defendant company is the member of the group of companies. It appears that there is another company in the group with the name Tonbridge Estates Limited. The letter, which Mr Fryatt, wrote on 22nd September 2001 entitled Tonbridge Estates Limited.

During the case, both Mr Nash and the defendant contended that both the parties entered into a contract, and both parties came into a contract on the basis of the above mentioned documents. Beside that Mr Nash also claimed for sums on a quantum meruit basis, which is due on the work completed by Mr Nash (claimant).

Mr Fryatt has contended that both the parties entered into a contract, and there were discussion, and negotiations between the two parties, which was intervened by Mr Linwood's letter. He accepted that the letter reflected the terms of the contract and discussion.

Since the letter was unclear and terms of the contract were not clearly stated, hence there was ...