Approval and Certificates - Building Contract - page 191

Chapter 10
Approval and Certificates
General
Unless the terms of the contract specify a set form of certificate, all that is required is
that 'it must clearly appear that the document relied upon is the physical effect of a
certifying process'. One should, therefore, have some regard to the factors of 'form',
'substance' and 'intent' of which Devlin J spoke in . . . Minster Trust Ltd v. Traps Tractors
Ltd (1954) . . . The document should be 'the expression in a definite form of the exercise
of the . . . opinion . . . of the . . . architect . . . in relation to some matter provided for
by the terms of the contract': per Edmund Davies LJ in Token Construction Co Ltd v.
Charlton Estates Ltd (1973).
Cantrell v. Wright and Fuller Ltd
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
(2003) 91 Con LR 97; [2003] EWHC 1545 (TCC)
The parties entered into a contract on 1 April 1997 for the construction of phase 1 of
a new extension to a nursing home in Suffolk on JCT 80 terms. The claimants were the
owners of the nursing home and the defendants the contractors. The contract works
achieved practical completion on 23 February 1998, the defects liability period expired
on 23 August 1998 and a document relied on by the defendant as a final certificate was
issued on 29 March 1999.
The claimant alleged defects in the works and there was a reference to arbitration.
The arbitrator decided as a preliminary issue that the certificate was a final certificate
and the claimants appealed.
JUDGE ANTHONY THORNTON QC:
87. Thus, the certificate must be one which clearly expresses the relevant opinion of the
architect in a form that shows that the opinion is that of the architect, is the one which the
contract calls for and which addresses and only addresses the matters called for.