the contract
18 On the material before me, there is no genuine dispute as to the following facts.
19 Mr Struck was at all relevant times a director of the plaintiff company.
20 Between 22 December 2015 and 4 April 2016, Mr Struck was also a director of Wok & Dumpling.
21 Mr Daniel Muir was, at 23 February 2016, an employee of the defendant company.
22 As at 3 February 2016, Mr Muir was the director of a company named Required Projects Pty Ltd (Required Projects).
23 On or around 3 February 2016, Mr Muir, on behalf of Required Projects, sent to the plaintiff a document titled "Quotation". That document:
(1) names the plaintiff company as "CLIENT";
(2) is marked to the attention of Mr Struck and to no other person;
(3) states as its subject "WOK+DUMPLING COLONNADES - Joinery";
(4) states "we have pleasure in submitting our quotation for the supply, delivery and installation of joinery/metal works for the above mentioned project in accordance with drawings, schedules, and specifications provided";
(5) gives a quotation for joinery works in the amount of $46,073.00, excluding GST;
(6) refers to a document titled "SNG - Subcontractor TCs - short contract.pdf";
(7) states "The above mentioned client whom has signed and agreed to the terms and conditions is responsible for full payment of the account".
24 On 22 February 2016, Required Projects submitted a quotation for additional works in connection with another store referred to as COCOLAT Colonnades.
25 On 23 February 2016, the plaintiff sent to the defendant a document titled "Letter of Award". That document:
(1) has, at its footer, the business name of the plaintiff company;
(2) bears at the top of the page the business name and logo of the plaintiff company, together with a stylised logo containing the words "WOK+Dumpling";
(3) is expressed to relate to a project described as "Project: W+D-002 Wok & Dumpling Colonnades";
(4) commences with the words: "We are pleased to inform you that your final tender offer issued via email dated 22.02.2016 for $33,200.00 (excluding GST) for the Joinery package has been accepted, and we confirm our intentions to enter into a Trade Contract Agreement with Clear Interiors for the Joinery Works as documented and tendered" (emphasis added);
(5) states that "The agreed form of Contract is the: Sub-Contractor Terms & Conditions provided at tender.";
(6) concludes "We look forward to a mutually rewarding relationship with your Company on this project and request that you sign below and return a copy to us promptly.";
(7) makes express provision, at its base, for the application of three signatures (excluding witnesses): one above the business name of the plaintiff company, one above the words "Wok & Dumpling" and one above the words "Sub-Contractor". Mr Muir executed the Letter of Award as "Sub-Contractor". The letter is not executed by any person on behalf of the plaintiff or Wok & Dumpling.
26 Mr Struck acknowledged in the course of submissions that the "tender offer" to which the Letter of Award refers is the same quotation given by Required Projects on 3 February 2016. No explanation is given by either party as to why the price stated in the quotation differs from that stated in the Letter of Award or why the date of the defendant's tender offer (namely 3 February 2016) differs from the date ascribed to the offer in the Letter of Award (namely 22 February 2016). The plaintiff alleges no genuine dispute in connection with those discrepancies.
27 Mr Struck did, however, explain that he understood that Required Projects had changed its name to Clear Interiors, being the name of the defendant company. It is not in dispute that Required Projects is in fact a different legal entity to the defendant company. Again, the plaintiff did not seek to found any genuine dispute on the circumstance that the offer referred to in the Letter of Award was given by Required Projects and not by the defendant. For reasons that will become clear, the formation of a binding contract ultimately does not turn upon that issue.
28 The Court also has before it a document titled "SUB-CONTRACT TERMS & CONDITIONS" (the Terms and Conditions). Both parties acknowledged that it is the document which constitutes the "Sub-contractor Terms & Conditions provided at tender" referred to in the Letter of Award. It is not disputed that the Terms and Conditions governed the terms upon which the works were to be undertaken by the defendant. The Terms and Conditions:
(1) do not specify the contracted price for the performance of the works;
(2) were prepared by and proffered by the plaintiff company;
(3) make no reference to Wok & Dumpling or the existence of any other party or third party affected by the Terms and Conditions;
(4) expressly and repeatedly refer throughout to the plaintiff by name;
(5) are expressed in terms conferring substantive rights and other benefits on the plaintiff including (without being exhaustive):
(a) the right to make good any property damage caused by the defendant and to deduct the make-good expenses from money owing to the defendant;
(b) the right to agree alternative amounts for liquidated damages other than those specified in the document;
(c) the right to agree variations to the agreement in writing;
(d) the right to agree an alternative defects liability period to that specified in the document;
(e) the right to carry out works on behalf of the defendant in the event that the defendant fails to carry out works in accordance with the agreed program of works, and the right to charge the defendant for doing so;
(f) the right to terminate the agreement in the event of a defined default and to carry out works on behalf of the defendant in that event, coupled with an express disclaimer that "Such action shall not prejudice the right of [the plaintiff] to recover from [the defendant] damages for any breaches".
29 The Terms and Conditions contain no express words limiting the capacity in which the plaintiff was to act in exercising rights of the kind to which I have referred. There is no express reference in the document or in the Letter of Award to the existence of any third party or any agency relationship existing between the plaintiff and any other person.
30 Before continuing, it is convenient at this juncture to set out the terms of cl 1(iii) and cl 8 of the Terms and Conditions:
SUB-CONTRACT TERMS & CONDITIONS
1. The following is agreed to by the parties
(iii) The conditions detailed herein (which shall only be varied, modified or rescinded by written agreement executed by Sinergia Construction Project Management contain the whole of the terms and conditions applicable to this agreement and the sub-contractors quotation, tender, acceptance, or confirmation shall not apply to this agreement. Commencement on site by the sub-contractor is deemed as full and final acceptance of all terms and conditions contained herewith.
…
8. Payments
(i) Payment shall be made to the sub-contractor as follows: Thirty (30) day Account: Progress Claims or invoices will be paid by the end of the following calendar month provided accurately documented originals (facsimiles not accepted) of invoices for completed works are received by Sinergia Construction Project Management no later than the 21st day of the month. Should invoices not be received by the stipulated date payments will be made at the end of the following month. All invoices/progress claims must be forwarded to - sngcpm@outlook.com
(ii) Variations: Payments for variations shall be made in accordance with the above terms in 8(i), provided that in all cases the variation has had prior approval in writing by Sinergia Construction Project Management.
31 Clause 1(iii) is in the nature of an entire agreement clause. In light of that clause I do not place any weight for present purposes on the statement in the Required Projects quotation to the effect that the plaintiff was to be liable to pay the defendant for the performance of the joinery works. The documents evidencing the terms of the contract are the Letter of Award and the Terms and Conditions.
32 Against the background of those documentary materials, Mr Struck submitted that the plaintiff was not privy to any contract with the defendant because no person on behalf of the plaintiff had executed the Letter of Award. That is, in my opinion, a patently feeble assertion. There is no evidence before the Court to support any inference that the plaintiff did not intend to be legally bound unless it formally executed a written document: see Masters v Cameron (1954) 91 CLR 353. Such an inference would be inconsistent in any event with the express terms of cl 1(iii) of the Terms and Conditions, which state that the defendant itself would be deemed to have agreed to the terms embodied in that document upon the commencement of works on site. The assertion is also inconsistent with the plaintiff's own express words in the Letter of Award confirming its "intention to enter into" a contract. In my opinion, there can be no argument that the parties to the contract became legally bound upon the defendant executing the Letter of Award on 23 February 2016 or, if not at that time, at the date upon which works commenced at the site. Either way, there can be no genuine dispute that there is a binding contract in existence.
33 Moreover, there is, in my opinion, nothing in the affidavit material that would evidence the existence of a genuine dispute that there was in existence a contract to which the plaintiff itself was a party. The plaintiff's status as a contracting party cannot seriously be disputed, especially having regard to the express words of the Terms and Conditions, the clear intention on the face of the Letter of Award that there was more than one entity intending to contract with the defendant (one of which was the plaintiff), the reference at all times to the defendant being a "sub-contractor", the quotation referred to in the Letter of Award having been directed only to the plaintiff and to no other entity, and the express conferral of rights personally upon the plaintiff in respect of which the contract clearly contemplates the plaintiff itself may sue. All of those factors render inarguable the plaintiff's assertion that it was merely a "consultant" or "intermediary" and not a contracting party at all.