Vivergo Fuels Ltd v Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd

Facts

Vivergo Fuels Limited, a joint venture of British Petroleum, British Sugar and Du Pont, was building a bioethanol plant at Saltend, Hull, said to be the largest such facility in the United Kingdom. Aker Process Limited acted as contract manager. By a contract dated 31 March 2010 Redhall Engineering Solutions Limited was engaged to carry out the mechanical and piping work to the North and South of the plant, with a contract completion date of 11 February 2011. Redhall fell behind almost from the outset. Meetings in Bristol in June 2010 produced a signed five-page document, the first two pages of which were agreed to be the Bristol Agreement and the remaining three of which listed "Redhall Actions", "Aker Actions" and "Joint Actions" whose status was disputed. Aker served a notice as to rate of progress in September 2010, imposed a labour cap, and repeatedly demanded a revised programme, which Redhall did not formally submit until 3 March 2011. Aker's letter of 22 February 2011 recorded breach of the programming obligation and a failure to proceed regularly and diligently, and Vivergo terminated by letter of 11 March 2011, barring Redhall from site on 14 March 2011, which Redhall treated as a repudiation it accepted. An adjudicator had earlier held the termination unlawful. Vivergo commenced these proceedings in September 2011 seeking declarations that the termination was lawful; Redhall counterclaimed for extensions of time based on 17 events.