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April UK: In MWHigh Tech Projects UK Ltd and another v Biffa Waste Services Ltd [2015] EWHC 949 (TCC) Biffa entered into an EPC contract with MWHigh Tech Projects UK Ltd (MW), for the design and construction of a waste treatment plant. Under the contract MWwere obliged to procure a retention bond under which it was a condition precedent that the employer must first make a call on the Parent Company Guarantee (PCG). After the contract was terminated, Biffa made a call on the PCG; after no payment under it was forthcoming, Biffa called on the retention bond. MW rejected the call, and applied to the court for Biffa to be restrained from calling the bond on the basis the call on the PCG was not valid. The court considered various authorities, finding in the absence of fraud that there was no justification for implying a term that the call on the PCG should be “valid”, and that such an approach would encourage satellite litigation and subvert the normal approach of on-demand bonds: “pay now, argue later.” Accordingly there were no grounds upon which the call on the bond could be restrained. UK: The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) came into force on 6 April 2015. CDM 2015 included transitional provisions, allowing parties working on construction projects until 6 October 2015 to fully transition to the 2015 regime. CDM 2015 removes the exception for domestic clients and simplifies some aspects of CDM 2007, such as assessing competence and the trigger for appointing a principal designer and principal contractor. One of the key changes introduced by CDM 2015 is that the role of principal designer replaces the role of CDM co-ordinator. Australia: In Probuild v NSWNetball [2015] NSWSC 408 (7 April 2015) the NSW Supreme Court refused to interfere with the adjudication process timeframes imposed by the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW). Probuild had submitted a payment claim and subsequently made an adjudication application after which (and during the period afforded to prepare an adjudication response), Netball NSW applied for an interlocutory application restraining Probuild from taking any further steps in the adjudication on the basis that the payment claim relied upon was
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