Law Reports - Signing party must have clear authority.

(From Post Magazine)

The case concerns the fitting out of toilet blocks at Merrill Lynch.

ML created two companies: the defendant, MLEP, to supervise the development and Mace to act as construction manager.

MLEP entered into a trade contract with the claimant, Hurst, to undertake the works. The contract envisaged that there would be a fixed price, adjustable only by measured variations or by extensions of time. The procedure for variations required Mace to issue formal contract instructions by way of a construction manager's instruction. There was also a system of issuing interim statements of account valuing the works so far performed, which required Hurst's signature.

When Hurst submitted its final account in November 2001, it was refused by Mace on the grounds that in a document signed by Mr Mell of Hurst in April 2001, Hurst was precluded from claiming sums that had not been included in the accounts issued up to that date. The document stated that the "final payment payable to the trade ...