The High Court has ordered Lend Lease Construction (Europe) to pay almost £15m in damages over “disastrous” failures of glass panes on the redeveloped 125 Old Broad Street, London EC2, formerly home to the London Stock Exchange.
Between 2006 and 2008 Lend Lease carried out an extensive redevelopment of the building under a design and build contract for 125 OBS (Nominees 1) to provide a 26-storey tower and a lower-level podium building that together would provide approximately 320,000ft² of Category A office space and 6,400ft² of retail space.
Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said that an “integral part” of the renovation was that the podium and tower were to be clad with a curtain walling system of storey-height framed glass panes.
However, he said: “Between 2008 and 2012 there were 17 spontaneous failures of glass panes on the building. The failures occurred without prior warning and, although on some occasions the shattered glass was retained in its frame until it could be removed, on others the glass was ejected away from the building and down towards street level.”
He said that early in the sequence of failures, scaffolding was erected around the building to protect people from falling glass, adding: “Fortunately, no one was seriously injured by falling glass; but the disastrous nature of the failures is well illustrated by the obvious need for the protective but disfiguring scaffolding and the fact that the problems made waves in the national press.”
The outer skin of the glass curtain walling was replaced between 2012 and 2013, and half of the removed glass was placed in storage, where a further four failures occurred.
The building owners claimed damages from Lend Lease, including the cost of re-cladding the building.
Lend Lease had maintained that it had complied with its obligations under the design and build contract to install glass that met European Standards and that the risk of the failures that happened had been accepted under the contract by the claimants.
However, the judge found that at least 35% of the glass was not “heat soaked” as required, which he said was “a serious breach of contract”.
He said: “I find that the claimants succeed on liability and are entitled to recover £14,753,195.16 in damages as a result.”
Interest remains to be calculated.
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