States of Guernsey v Jacobs UK Ltd

Mr Justice Akenhead:

The States of Guernsey (“Guernsey”) seek through Part 8 proceedings determination of issues relating to whether or not there were binding arbitration agreements entered into between them and Jacobs UK Ltd ("Jacobs") in relation to a project which involves the development of a new terminal at Guernsey Airport. The case raises some issues of more general interest in relation to the circumstances in which an arbitration agreement might (or might not) be entered into after the project is substantially completed.

It has been agreed that, where necessary, I will decide any relevant contentious issues of fact on the documents and written evidence filed by the parties. There is a substantial history to the project and to the dealings between the parties, by which they sought to establish a contractual relationship, including one which at various stages of negotiation did or did not include provision for arbitration. It is accepted by the parties that I do not need to decide whether or not there was any underlying agreement between the parties by which Jacobs actually performed their various engineering services on the project.

The context of this current dispute is that Guernsey wishes to pursue various claims against Jacobs and there is an issue as to whether the agreed forum is arbitration or the Courts.

The History and the Facts.

Initially, Guernsey wanted to retain its entire professional team contractually by way of one contract with a lead consultant, namely the Architect, Kensington Taylor ("the Architect"). Jacobs is and was a firm of consulting engineers, formerly known as Babtie, who were to be retained. In May 1998 Jacobs sent to the Architect an appendix which identified in broad terms the services which they were prepared to provide. Although this schedule has no specific reference to an arbitration agreement it relates to a schedule of services under the then current ACE conditions which did have an arbitration clause.

On 5 January 1999, the Architect effectively quoted to Guernsey for the costs of providing the multi-disciplinary services which included those of Architect, Quantity Surveyor and a full Engineering Consultancy including Structural, Civil, Traffic, Environmental and Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Services, together with Airport Consultancy. The quote was a total of £1,143,600, including some fees already paid. This was put forward inferentially by the Architect on the basis that possibly the RIBA stand