In this article we will examine how the court approaches
disputes where the parties to a contract are unable to agree what
the contract means and look at some recent examples showing how the
court's approach applies in practice.
In theory, when the terms of a transaction are agreed the
document drawn up to reflect the agreement should always be
perfect. In reality, as we at Clyde & Co often see in the
course of our work in the professional indemnity sector (where we
regularly find ourselves defending solicitors against claims
relating to allegedly negligent drafting), this is not always the
case.
Disputes over the meaning of contracts are commonplace, and the
property sector is no exception. Particularly in difficult economic
times parties may sometimes look for ways to extract themselves
from deals which have not turned out as well as they hoped at the
time of negotiating the agreement. For example, if a contract for
the sale of a property provides for a delay
