Is A Pay When Paid Clause Applicable If The Contractor’s Account To The Owner Is Reduced For Reasons Unconnected With Subcontractor’s Work?

A pay when paid clause is one of the most contentious clauses in a building contract. Indeed, the clause is outlawed in most circumstances in the United Kingdom and some states of the United States. In Canada, there is conflicting case law about the application and interpretation of the clause. In Wallwin Electric Services Inc. v. Tasis Contractors Inc., the Ontario Superior court recently gave guidance as to when such a clause is applicable, and held that it does not apply if the contractor voluntarily reduces its account to the owner for reasons unconnected to the subcontractor’s work.

Background

A pay when pay clause purports to entitle the contractor to refuse payment to the subcontractor if the contractor has not been paid by the owner. In the Wallwin case, the payment clause read as follows:

“(3) Provided that, as a condition precedent, the contractor has been paid the certificate, in which such amount has been included, by the owner.”

The contractor, Tasis said that it had no obligation to pay the subcontractor since it, the contractor, had not been fully paid by the owner. The main contract had been certified to be substantially completed. There were no outstanding deficiencies with respect to the electrical work done by Wallwin and its work was included in the certificates that had been issued by the consultant.

The owner asserted that there were deficiencies in previously certified work. Accordingly, the contractor Tasis subtracted $150,176.65 from its invoice for these deficiencies. That work was unrelated to the work performed by Wallwin. Tasis was paid for this invoice.

As the judgment in the case recorded, the parties were agreed that

“1. Wallwin made regular applications for payment as provided for in the subcontract.

  1. At no time did Tasis or the project consultant make any changes to the amount of Wallwin’s applications for payment.
  2. At no time did Tasis or the project consultant give notice to Wallwin of any changes to the amount of Wallwin’s applications for payment.
  3. Tasis was paid by the owner for each certificate in the amount certified.”

Nevertheless the contractor Tasis submitted that “the subcontractors legal entitlement to payment is contingent upon the general contractor being paid, then the subcontractor must bear the risk of nonpayment by the owner to the general contractor; the only exception being where the reason for nonpayment by the owner is the default of the general contractor.”

Decision of the Ontario Superior Court

The application judge disagreed. He held that the proper interpretation of a “pay when paid clause is as follows:

“A contractor is obliged to pay a subcontractor when:

  1. the subcontractor makes application for payment,
  2. neither the contractor or certifier have given written notice to the subcontractor of a change in the amount the subcontractor has applied to be paid
  3. the amount the subcontractor has applied to be paid has been included in a Certificate for Payment, and
  1. the contractor has been paid that Certificate for Payment by the owner.”

In particular, the court held that a contractor cannot:

“avoid its obligation to pay a subcontractor by adjusting an invoice to allow for an owner to retain contract funds when a dispute arises over previously certified payments. The certification process creates the obligation to pay. Disagreements over subcontractor applications for payment may be resolved prior to Certificate for Payment being issued, as contemplated at the end of Article 4.2, or they may be resolved after payment, but once the above conditions have been satisfied payment must be made.”

Accordingly, the court held that the subcontractor was entitled to be paid by the contractor.

Discussion

This case is, perhaps, an easy one. It is hard to contemplate that a “pay when paid” clause could be interpreted to apply if the money held back by the owner is not in relation to the work undertaken by the subcontractor and the contractor has been paid in full for that work. The more difficult cases arise when the contractor is unpaid for all or part of the work done by the subcontractor because of, say, the owner’s insolvency or faulty work by the contractor.

The present decision is interesting because it introduces two ingredients into the application of the “pay when paid” clause:

whether there has been a written notice of change in the subcontract and

whether the consultant has certified the payments due under the subcontract.

These ingredients appear to introduce two new hurdles that the subcontractor must get over before payment will be paid. It is unclear where those ingredients come from.

The Canadian law relating to “pay when paid” clauses is complicated by the conflicting decisions of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Timbro Developments v. Grimsby Diesel Motors Inc. (where the clause was applied) and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in Arnoldin Construction & Forms Ltd v. Alta Surety Co. (where the clause was not applied). Until the law is clarified by the Supreme Court of Canada, the proper scope and application of “pay when paid” clauses will be contentious.

See Heintzman and Goldsmith on Canadian Building Contracts (5th ed.), chapter 6, part 2(d)(i)

Wallwin Electric Services Inc. v. Tasis Contractors Inc, 2015 CarswellOnt 3177
2015 ONSC 1612

Thomas G. Heintzman O.C., Q.C., FCIArb                              April 10, 2015

www.heintzmanadr.com

www.constructionlawcanada.com

 

Pay-When-Paid: When Is The Contractor Not Obliged To Pay The Subcontractor?

Construction Law  –  Building Contract  –  “Pay When Paid”

The Ontario Superior court recently wrestled with the issue of how to interpret and apply a “Pay When Paid” clause in a subcontract.

In 1473662 Ontario Limited v. Avgroup Consulting Services Limited, the Court appears to apply the traditional approach to this clause, but opened a door for subcontractors to avoid its severity.

Avgroup was the general contractor for a hotel construction project. The numbered company (which carried on business as “Dyson Electric”) was the electrical subcontractor.  Avgroup alleged that the parties had contracted pursuant to the CCDC subcontract, and that the contract contained a “Pay When Pay” clause which read:

“The Contractor shall pay the Subcontractor no later than thirty (30) days after the Submission Date or three (3) working days after the Contractor receives payment from the Owner, whichever is the later.”

However, that contract was never signed.  Dyson alleged that the contract was found in the invoices which it had submitted to Avgroup and which Avgroup had accepted as the basis for payment.  Those invoices did not contain a Pay When Paid clause.

The Court appeared to accept that the Pay When Paid clause in the form of CCDC contract relied upon by Avgroup was substantially similar to the clause in the contract which had been considered by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Timbro Developments Ltd. v. Grimsby Diesel Motors Inc (1988) 32 C.L.R. 32 (Ont. C.A.).  The clause in that case stated:  “Payments will be made not more than thirty (30) days after the submission date or ten (10) days after the certification or when we have been paid by the owner, whichever is the later.”

The Court of Appeal in Timbro held that such a clause was not just a payment-timing clause operating during the project, but entirely precluded the sub-contactor from recovering from the contractor in the event that the contractor was not paid by the owner.

The court in the present case evidently felt itself to be bound by the Timbro decision.  But the court held that there was a triable issue relating to whether the contract was in the form of the CCDC subcontract or in the form of the subcontractor’s invoices.  Accordingly, the court dismissed Dyson’s motion for summary judgment.

This decision highlights the need for the Supreme Court of Canada to review the Pay When Paid issue.  There is conflicting authority in Nova Scotia (Arnoldin Construction & Forms Ltd. v. Aslta Surety Co (1995), 19 C.L.R. (2d) 1 (N.S. C.A.)) and leave to appeal that decision was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Ontario.  Moreover, members of the construction industry, and the drafters of the CCDC subcontract, should clarify their intention about the meaning of a Pay When Paid clause.

The fundamental questions are these:  Who should bear the risk of the owner’s insolvency, the contractor or the subcontractor?

Why should the subcontractor, who has no dealings with the owner and no means of managing the risk of the owner’s insolvency, bear that risk rather than the contractor?  A subcontractor may reasonably be expected to bear the risk of the timing of the payments by the contractor during the project, but it is more difficult to understand why the subcontractor should bear the risk of the owner’s insolvency.

The same issue can, of course, arise in a sub-subcontract or a supply contract if that contract contains a Pay When Paid clause.  Here, the risk is the contractor’s insolvency.  Is it reasonable for the sub-subcontractor or supplier to the sub-contractor to bear the risk of the contractor’s insolvency when they have no dealings with the contractor?

These are questions which the courts and the construction industry need to carefully consider.

See Goldsmith and Heintzman, Canadian Building Contracts (4th ed), Chapter 4, part 2).

Construction Law – Building Contract – “Pay-when-Paid”: 

1473662 Ontario Limited v. Avgroup Consulting Services Limited, 2011 ONSC 2900 (CanLII)

Thomas G. Heintzman O.C., Q.C.                                                                               June 26, 2011

www.constructionlawcanada.com