The Supreme court of the Russian Federation: the contractor is obliged to prove the need for non-contractual work without the consent of the customer
The company (hereinafter also – the contractor) and the institution (hereinafter – the customer) signed a state contract for the implementation of works on the construction of a kindergarten. The contractor, when signing the contract, was acquainted with the design and estimate documentation and had no comments increasing the contract price and terms of work.
After the completion of construction, the company appealed to the arbitration court to the institution to recover the debt for payment of works. The contractor charged the cost of additional works, including those not provided by the design and estimate documentation, but performed due to production necessity.
The decision of the court of first instance to satisfy the claim is denied due to the lack of evidence of compliance by the parties with the procedure established by law for placing an order for additional work or amending the contract.
The court of appeal, having taken into account the terms of the contract on the possibility of changing the price of the contract by agreement of the parties, having established the performance of additional works by the contractor in agreement with the customer, concluded that the customer was obliged to pay for additional works agreed with the customer and partially satisfied the claim.
In this case, the Supreme court agreed with the findings of the court of appeal and the district court about the lack of evidence to support the need to conduct other work without the consent of the customer of the workforce necessary to achieve the contractual result or because of urgency and refused the contractor in the transfer of the appeal to Judicial Board on economic disputes of the Supreme court.
Document: ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 301-ES18-10554 of 30 July 2018