19 October 2012
Alstom Power Ltd v SOMI Impianti SRL [2012] EWHC 2644 (TCC), [2012] All ER (D) 74 (Oct)
It was settled law that, where a contract provided that the plant and materials “shall be deemed” or “shall be considered” to be the property of the employer, the words would be regarded as ambiguous. In such a case, other provisions of the contract might be taken into account in order to decide whether the contract had the effect of passing the legal property in the plant and materials to the employer or whether, as the prima facie meaning of the words suggested, it did not have that effect but merely entitled the employer to act as if the property in the plant and materials had passed.
