whether plant hire constituted supply of related goods and services within the scope and meaning of “contract, agreement or other arrangement”
Quick Take
1A plant hire agreement expressed to be 'ongoing until return of machinery', listing multiple items with hire rates, is properly construed as a rolling hire agreement that remains on foot until the last item of listed machinery is returned — not a framework requiring fresh agreement particulars each time an individual item is demobilised and remobilised.
2For the purposes of s 64 of the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), an 'other arrangement' requires at least a concluded bilateral state of affairs with sufficient mutuality, including enough settled detail to enable the supply of goods to be claimed with precision and valued to the same standard, but legal enforceability is not required.
3Where a party's solicitors write to the counterparty asserting that an existing hire agreement governs the parties' rights and obligations and remains on foot, that correspondence is capable of confirming the continued operation of the agreement as a 'construction contract', or alternatively of constituting an 'other arrangement' for the purposes of s 64 of the BIF Act.
