Sources of Ambiguity in Construction Contract Documents, Reflected by Litigation in Supreme Court Cases

Chan, Ei Ei; Nik-Bakht, Mazdak; Han, SangHyeok

doi:10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000498

Cited by 18 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A contract can be regarded as one of the most significant means to safeguard against deprivation of rights and disputes (Chan et al. , 2021), which is common and pervasive in construction industry (Saseendran et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Various factors have been addressed in past studies causing construction disputes such as variations, unforeseen conditions, defective works, payment, and personality traits (Chan et al. , 2021; Love et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The researchers found that the ex ante trust had significant impacts on the completeness and enforcement of contracts as well as ex-post trust. Chan et al. (2021) examined the litigation in court cases in Canada using a fishbone diagram to identify the sources of ambiguity and reported that incomplete and redundant information as the underlying causes of conflicts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The role of contract incompleteness factors in project disputes: a hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach

Gürgün

Koç

2022

ECAM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeContract incompleteness with deficiency, inconsistency, defectiveness, and ambiguity in contract clauses, which can cause misunderstandings and misinterpretations, may result with disputes in projects. This study aims to investigate contract incompleteness factors with a hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach.Design/methodology/approachContract incompleteness factors were ranked by fuzzy VIKOR (Visekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) method, and the most significant factors were subjected to fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to examine their causal relationships. The study is not limited to ranking the identified factors solely, since their cause-effect interactions are also essential for proper risk management in construction projects.FindingsHybrid use of multi-criteria analysis reveals that ambiguity in enforceability including excessive demands and significant amendments in the scope of works are the top two causal contract incompleteness factors, while lack of implementation details and focus of focal point, and insufficient supporting and technical documents are the most affected ones.Originality/valueContractual causes of disputes due to contract incompleteness factors other than requirements of the contracts have been rarely investigated in the literature. The research is one of the first studies in the literature investigating the causal relationship among factors in construction contracts, which might lead to project disputes. Findings are expected to improve contract drafting, eventually contributing to effective risk management in construction projects.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The role of contract incompleteness factors in project disputes: a hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach

Gürgün

Koç

2022

ECAM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A construction contract is an agreement document signed between project parties that sets the scope and terms of work. Any ambiguity or missing information in drafting the contract can lead to conflicts between parties resulting in claims occurrence (Chan et al, 2021). Sources of ambiguities in construction contracts are mainly: poor contract draftsmanship, vagueness in contract terms, contract modifications, and missing data (Chan et al, 2021).…”

Section: Contract Ambiguity Claimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Any ambiguity or missing information in drafting the contract can lead to conflicts between parties resulting in claims occurrence (Chan et al, 2021). Sources of ambiguities in construction contracts are mainly: poor contract draftsmanship, vagueness in contract terms, contract modifications, and missing data (Chan et al, 2021). The four strategies clusters (SC1, SC2, SC3, and SC5) along with the different SMPs that they represent are demonstrated in Figure 6.5.…”

Section: Contract Ambiguity Claimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Implementing Sustainable Management Practices on Construction Claims Mitigation. (c2022)

Thabet¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The fragmented management of traditional construction projects, which mainly lacks the integration of project processes, often results in schedule delays and cost overruns leading to client dissatisfaction, quality defects, and increase in work accidents and injuries. As a result, claims and disputes are most likely to arise between the contracting parties that can be extremely expensive and may severely impact the project performance. Numerous studies have investigated the influence of integrating sustainable management practices (SMPs) in construction projects on specific project performance objectives, such as cost, time, and quality; however, none has considered the effect of implementing SMPs on claims and dispute resolution. This gave the impetus for this research which aims at studying the impact of implementing an integration of SMPs clusters on construction claims mitigation. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive literature review was conducted and resulted in the identification of 25 critical SMPs and 10 frequent construction claims. Then, a survey was designed and a total of 144 construction engineering industry experts participated to assess the effect of implementing the identified SMPs on claims mitigation. The received data was checked for reliability and then analyzed using Mean Score technique and factor analysis to identify major clusters of SMPs. Then, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model was developed via MATLAB software, to establish optimal approaches for integrating SMPs that promote the reduction of different claim types. The research findings highlighted 12 optimal SMPs integrated approaches in eliminating different types of claims. Particularly, the research revealed that high implementation of three clusters of SMPs, namely “experienced green building certified professionals”, “sustainability requirements at early design phase”, and “sustainability requirements at execution phase” have the potential to eliminate or at least reduce the majority of construction claims. This study assists construction project management experts in identifying an optimal combination of a minimum number of sustainable management practices that, if implemented together, can help in significantly reducing targeted types of claims.

show abstract

Development of ECC for infrastructure projects

Eldosouky

Elkorany

Albayomi

2023

Ain Shams Engineering Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sources of Ambiguity in Construction Contract Documents, Reflected by Litigation in Supreme Court Cases

Cited by 18 publications

References 29 publications

The role of contract incompleteness factors in project disputes: a hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach

The role of contract incompleteness factors in project disputes: a hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach

Effect of Implementing Sustainable Management Practices on Construction Claims Mitigation. (c2022)

Development of ECC for infrastructure projects

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About