Builder Multiplex and engineer Mott MacDonald have been warned that proceedings in their £253m legal dispute over Wembley Stadium must be completed by July 2011.
Coulson J gave the warning this morning during a case–management conference.
In December 2008, Multiplex, which is now known as Brookfield Multiplex after it was taken over by the Canadian property developer and fund manager in July 2007, issued a 600-page claim against Mott MacDonald, demanding £253m in damages for shortcomings in the steelwork design, which it alleges resulted in 11,000 changes to the drawings and the overrunning of the project.
In its defence filed earlier this month, Mott MacDonald highlighted “logic errors” in Multiplex’s case and launched a counter-claim for £230,000 in unpaid fees.
Coulson J said that he wants the case to begin in January 2011, with closing submissions finished by the end of July, which will give him the following Michaelmas term to write up his judgment.
