P&K Insights: One Project, Two Stories

Who Caused the Delay?

In the case of ICOP Construction (SG) Pte Ltd v Tiong Seng Civil Engineering (Pte) Ltd [2024] SGHC(A) 1 (“ICOP v Tiong Seng”) the Appellate Division of the Singapore High Court (the “Court”) affirmed several important principles concerning a contractor’s delay related claims.

In particular, the Court set out on what basis it determined which programme should be relied on as the baseline programme for the delay analysis underlying a contractor’s delay related claim.

The Court also held that the debate on the proper approach to concurrent delays is only relevant where both events causing delay are “of approximately equal causative potency” and both events must, in fact, cause critical delays (i.e., they must both affect the critical path of the project).

Partner Mino Han and intern Gracie Lee explore the court’s findings and lessons for contractors.