Profiling of summary judgement in construction industry

Abstract

The process of the litigation under civil takes longer time with many trials and also consume cost due to the process of getting delayed until judgement is given by the court which normally take two years or even more. The Rules of High Court „RHC? introduced Summary judgement under Order 14 where the mechanism is able to reduce the time consumption and shorten the completion of cases. Summary judgment is applicable where the defendant has no valid defence but defendant able to defence the claim by raising the triable issues. For the construction industry, it is impossible to obtain summary judgement due to the nature of the industries which is complex as per viewed from the legal experts. Therefore, this research is conducted to profile the summary judgement cases in construction industry in organized form in order to cross check the effectiveness of summary judgement under Order 14 RHC. When the valid triable issue is raised by the defendant then Summary judgement will be not granted because triable issues will be a defend against summary judgement. Validation of triable issues are often determined by the court. Thus, the objective of this research is to determine the criteria of the triable issues to become valid issues in various contracts related to the construction industry. To achieve the objective of this research 20 cases were selected to be analyzed. Furthermore, this research found that there are three (3) points that can be criteria of the triable issue comprising a counterclaim links with claim, set off and claimed unconnected with the claim. Triable issues can be arise from any other issues but need to be proven that there are disputed issues on the facts or on the law. Furthermore, profiling of the summary judgment cases gives would be able to more understanding on the parties involved, standard form of contract, triable issues, criteria of triable issues, court judgment and level of court.