Contractor’s claim for compensation dismissed

A claim for €201,000 in compensation related to a government road repair tender was turned down after an appeals court found that the contractor did not suffer any damages when he was not chosen to complete the job.

The case started in 2002 when Grezzju Ellul filed a lawsuit against the Water Services Corporation and the contracts director general claiming compensation after a job was awarded to another contractor.

The corporation had issued a public call for tenders to repair water pipes. The tender was split into five phases and the contractor was only allowed to start working on a new phase after passing a quality control test.

The contract was awarded to Charles Dimech but the quality control test on the first phase of his works revealed that these, especially the road resurfacing, were not up to standard.

As a result, the Water Services Corporation recommended that the second phase of the works should not be completed by Mr Dimech but by Mr Ellul, who had made the second lowest bid.

However, the contracts committee did not take up the corporation’s recommendation and awarded the second phase of the contract to Mr Dimech.

The first court turned down Mr Ellul’s request for compensation but nullified the contracts committee’s decision to award the consecutive phases to Mr Dimech.

But time had passed and Mr Dimech had completed the works in the meantime. As a result, Mr Ellul opened a case in the First Hall of the Civil Court.

In handing down judgment, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo noted that Mr Dimech had wrongly assumed that he would be awarded all the remaining phases of the tender.

Also, he pointed out that it was not materially possible for the Water Services Corporation and the contracts department to implement the first judgment because the works had already been ­completed.