When an engineering company sought to recover under a contractors bond (construction guarantee) for unpaid fees for engineering services rendered, a court held that a bond which provided protection for entities that have ‘performed labour or furnished materials in the prosecution of the work’ did not include the engineer’s professional engineering services which were not ‘labour’ in terms of the meaning of that word.
Construction guarantees and other guarantees are often concise. Care must be taken that the wording covers the entities and activities intended clearly.
[The case is Widmer Engineering Inc. v Five-R Excavating, case number 136-WAL-2017, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania]
