Shepherd Construction has lost the first round of a £10m High Court case against its own lawyer Pinsent Masons, which the contractor accused of “negligence” last year in the drafting of its contracts, reports Building.
The charges were made when North Yorkshire-based contractor was forced to make over £10m in payments to subcontrators working on the £210m Trinity Walk shopping centre in Wakefield after its client, Trinity Walk Wakefield, went into administration in 2009.
Pinsent Masons had drafted a ‘pay-when-paid’ clause in the late nineties to protect Shepherd from this type of problem, but the clause had not been updated to take account of changes the 2002 Enterprise Act, which forced Shepherd to pay out on its subcontracts.
Last week, in a key argument, Mr Justice Akenhead ruled against Shepherd, saying that there was no evidence of “some overarching general retainer” which required Pinsent Masons to review all of its previous advice. He said: “There is something commercially and professionally worrying if professional people are to be held responsible for reviewing all previous advice or indeed services provided.”
The case continues.
