Summary
The Court partly upheld an award for additional road-maintenance costs caused by traffic diverted onto a road designed for much lower use. The contractor’s pleaded amount covered expenditure only up to a stated date and reserved later details, so compensation for continuing expenditure was neither beyond the claim nor outside the reference. The higher compensatory rate did not rewrite the ordinary maintenance price. However, compensation could not continue after the additional traffic ceased. The award was retained through January 2008 and set aside for February 2008 to May 2010, with the payable sum to be recalculated.
Issues
- Whether compensation for continuing additional maintenance exceeded the claim, reference or contractual rate.
- Whether compensation could extend beyond the period of diverted additional traffic.
Held
- The statement of claim expressly calculated expenditure only up to May 2007 and reserved submission of subsequent expenditure during the hearing. The larger award therefore was not beyond the pleaded claim merely because it exceeded that initial calculation. (¶ 9.1)
- The additional expenditure continued while traffic remained diverted. The claim was not confined to the dates of invoking arbitration, appointing the arbitrator or entering the reference, and compensation through the period of diversion was permissible. (¶ 9.2)
- The contractual maintenance price reflected the originally estimated traffic. Compensation for proven additional expense caused by subsequently diverted heavy traffic addressed a different loss and did not rewrite the agreed ordinary-maintenance rate. (¶¶ 9, 9.3-9.4)
- The additional traffic ceased from January 2008. Continuing the compensatory rate to the end of the contract was perverse to that extent. Compensation at Rs.45,000 per kilometre per month was confirmed through January 2008 and quashed for February 2008 to 31 May 2010; the balance was to be worked out accordingly. (¶¶ 9.5, 10)
Result
Appeals partly allowed without costs; compensation confirmed through January 2008, set aside for February 2008 to May 2010, and payable amount directed to be recalculated.