Panatown Ltd. v Alfred McAlpine Construction Ltd

This is a case which ended in the House of Lords after more than seven years of litigation, starting with an arbitration case. It is referred to in the introduction to contracts in English_for_Contract_and_Company_Law. Panatown is talked about as an "employer" here, although they are actually giving a building contract to McAlpine to build an office block and a multi-storey car-park. The work was to be carried out on a site which belonged to "Unex Investment Properties" a member of the same group of companies as Panatown.

In the Court of Appeal the judges took the view that the exceptions to privity for building contracts would apply, even though the builder had also signed a Deed of duty of Care with the owner of the land...(giving UIP a remedy in tort). There is a commentary on the legal arguments in the House of Lords in The Singapore Law Gazette where this is overturned and Panatown does not have a claim. However there are two dissenting judgements in the House of Lords case.