Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

TCC on email acceptance of standard terms, no oral variation, defects liability and reinstatement damages in vacuum furnace refurbishment: Magnetic Shields v VAS [2024] EWHC 2260 (TCC), England and Wales

Published on: 04 September 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Construction expert

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Article summary

Magnetic Shields Ltd v Vacuum and Atmosphere Services Ltd [2024] EWHC 2260 (TCC)

What are the practical implications of this case?

This dispute turned on intricate technical questions about repairing a vacuum furnace, yet handily revisits the legal rules governing contract formation and subsequent variation. It also demonstrates how the court decides whether defects amount to breaches of contract, by relying on expert evidence and the terms of the agreement, and how it assesses the damages payable, broadly by applying established general principles. Practitioners may therefore find the judgment a useful reference point for seeing those principles put into practice.

What was the background?

Magnetic Shields Ltd (‘MSL’) operates a number of vacuum furnaces across several manufacturing sites and, in June 2017, purchased two second-hand furnaces, one being an Abar HR50 (‘the Abar’), built in the 1980s and rated to work at pressures up to a positive pressure of 5 bar absolute. In November 2017, MSL engaged Vacuum and Atmosphere Services Limited (‘VAS’) to refurbish the Abar to an ‘as new’ standard—this included providing a new Programmable Logic Controller (‘PLC’) to control the Abar’s operation...

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