Multilayered Framework for Testing the Justifiability of Time-at-Large Callings

Abstract

One of the situations presenting major difficulties to the administration of construction contracts is when time is called by the contractor to have become at large. Several circumstances may evolve during the course of construction causing the contractor to rightly or wrongly proclaim such a stance. Among the repercussions of this decision will be that the time for completion will no longer hold and that the contractor’s obligation will then be to complete the works within such time as deemed reasonable under the prevailing circumstances. Given the gravity of such a developed situation, the paper aims at providing a tool for testing the justifiability of time-at-large callings. The followed methodology touches on the treatment of this matter by the different legal jurisdictions, followed by an examination through a review of relevant literature and eminent precedent cases of the circumstances that, when satisfied, justly assert considering time to have rendered at large. The paper concludes with the presentation of a proposed framework allowing for the testing of time-at-large assertions in accordance with a multilayered approach. The proposed method, while accounting for a number of variables related to the conditions of the contract in question and the contract-administration actions expected to be undertaken by, or on behalf of, the parties to the contract, can be instrumental to contractors and dispute resolution professionals in properly judging time-at-large situations, as validated through a case study.