Our speaker for the seminar, Ian de Vaz reminded the audience that the genesis of the evening's topic was an aside made some time ago to the SCL on his interest in a tricky subject. Having promised the audience that he had trawled the bottom of the barrel on case law surrounding due diligence in construction contracts, the seminar was launched with the audience keenly anticipating how a rarely tackled issue would be addressed.

The audience barely had time to settle down when they were nudged towards the various forms that due diligence obligations took in the myriad of contracts that exist in the construction industry. Ian recapped that due diligence obligations were not only confined to the rate at which the works progressed but also to the quality of the workmanship. The nature and scope of damages likely to arise from a breach of due diligence obligations was also discussed. By the end of the evening, our speaker had taken us on an epic passage across the law on due diligence in construction contracts ranging from when the courts may imply due diligence obligations into a contract to whether parties ought to contract out of particularly worrying due diligence obligations.

Ian even had time to wrestle a thorny question from the chair and drew approving nods from the audience on his response that a properly crafted exclusive remedy clause for liquidated damages would likely trump any attempts by fiddly employers to claim additional damages for failure to comply with the due diligence obligation. The evening drew to a close with the audience adjourning for drinks, truly satisfied with a well spent ninety minutes.

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