Co-authored by James De Melo,
Student-at-Law
If you are considering submitting a claim in respect of delays
caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, or if you have already received
notice in respect of the same by contractors or suppliers, it may
be worthwhile to consider the force majeure clause (or,
the absence thereof) in your construction contracts.
A force majeure clause may function to relieve a party
from the performance of its contractual obligations when an
intervening event outside of the control of either party makes the
performance of those contractual obligations impossible. In cases
where force majeure clauses have been found to operate,
the intervening events in question have typically been something
unexpected and beyond the reasonable foresight of the parties.1 A
force majeure clause is the part of a contract which says
something similar to the same effect as the following:
