KANE CONSTRUCTIONS PTY LTD v SOPOV (NO 2)

摘要

The reasons for judgment in this matter having been delivered on 30 June 2005, the parties were asked to provide minutes of proposed orders. The parties were unable to agree on orders and additional hearings were convened to determine the appropriate orders to be made. The plaintiff sought an order for judgment in its favour of $3,078,482 excluding GST, while the defendants submitted that the order ought be judgment in the plaintiff's favour for only $130,958.86. The plaintiff's orders were based on a claim for $4,746,911.83 (of which $2,769,350 had already been paid by the defendants) on a quantum meruit, which included a 10% margin for profit and overheads. The only deductions that the plaintiff submitted should be allowed from this amount were $70,065 in respect of defective works, $220,000 for liquidated damages, and $81,284 in respect of deduction variations (for failure to provide certain items that formed part of the original scope of the works). The plaintiff also claimed that it was entitled to an indemnity (or payment by the defendants) for any amount it was liable to pay in GST on amounts recovered in these proceedings. The plaintiff also submitted that interest should be calculated at a rate of 8% (as agreed by the parties) compounded at six month intervals (which amounted to $992,914). With respect to the deduction variations, the plaintiff had included an express reservation in its Scott Schedule submissions in which it submitted that deduction variations should not be allowed in the event that it succeeded on a quantum meruit. The plaintiff argued that it would be unfair to include in the deduction from the quantum meruit claim, items that were never included in the cost of the work.