Penfold Projects Pty Ltd v Securcorp Limited [2011] QDC 77

Contracts - Building, Engineering and related contracts – Remuneration– Statutory regulation of entitlement to and recovery of progress payments – Payment claims– where the applicant and the respondent entered into a construction contract – where a Construction Manager was the third party to the contract – where in December 2010 and January 2011 the applicant sent by email to the Construction Manager documents addressed to the respondent care of the Construction Manager – where those documents were headed as “Progress Claim” and contained the statement, “This is a progress claim under the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act 2004” – where neither claim had been paid in part or in full by the respondent – where there was evidence on behalf of the respondent that the applicant at no time served, delivered or in any other way provided a copy of the claims to the respondent and that the Construction Manager at no time provided to both the applicant and the respondent, a progress certificate as required by the Contract – where the applicant sought orders that the respondent pay it $276,782.01 as a debt owing pursuant to s 19(2)(a)(i) of the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act 2004 together with interest – whether the December 2010 and January 2011 claims were payment claims for the purpose of s 17 of the Act – whether the claims were validly served on the respondent under s 17(1) of the Act – whether the payment claims could be validly served on the respondent by service on the Construction Manager as its agent – whether the construction contract provided a way in which a payment claim could be served on the respondent for the purposes of s 103(1) of the Act – whether the Construction Manager was the respondent’s authorised agent for the service of payment claims under the Act, and in particular under s 17(1) of the Act – whether the respondent had been served by the payment claims coming to its attention - whether service by email sufficient.

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