Case Law
Vogon International Ltd. v Serious Fraud Office
[2004] EWCA Civ
104
Information and Communications
Technology:
Case Note - Vogon
International Ltd. v Serious Fraud Office
7 July
2004
This case note first appeared on the NIPC website
This appeal highlights the need for attention to detail even in informal and hurriedly negotiated computer contracts. The failure of the parties to agree in advance the meaning of the word "database" in context produced an ambiguity that gave rise to a claim by the supplier for £314,375 in respect of 10 days work by 2 individuals and a payment into court by its customer of just £22,500.
The words that gave rise to the dispute was as follows:
"To inspect and determine the configuration of
each MS Exchange Database from each tape £3,500.00 total.
Set-up and population MS Exchange Database.
£1,500 per database.
To process the data from each database to produce one PST file per mailbox
£1,250.00 per database."
The question was whether "database" in this context referred to that of an entire server or to that of each individual user's file. The judge below chose the first construction was correct and gave judgment for the amount of the payment in disallowing interest and awarding indemnity costs to the customer, and his decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal.
The
judgment below, however, contained findings of opportunism bordering on
dishonesty for which no evidence had been produced. The Court of Appeal
described those findings as wrong and unnecessary. However, save for the
satisfaction of a finding that the judge's criticism was unjustified and
should never have been made the supplier left empty handed. As the
substantive appeal had been dismissed there were no grounds to disturb
either the judgment or the award of indemnity costs.
