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The Evolution of Global Claims and John Doyle Construction Ltd v. Laing Management

A global claim, in its crudest form, alleges that the entire difference between the contractor’s tender price and his actual costs has arisen from a number of breaches by the employer, and makes little or no attempt to link the alleged effects to individual breaches. In the event that the contractor has himself made a material contribution to this increase in costs, either by underpricing his tender, by his own inefficiencies or otherwise, the employer would be unduly penalized if the courts were to accept such a claim without imposing strict conditions. The courts have therefore chosen to reject global claims where the employer has been able to show that the contractor has made more than a trivial contribution to the alleged damage.