International EPC contractor successfully resolves $140 million dispute over defective work and over-billing claims on $2 billion mining project in Peruvian Andes
Client(s) International EPC contractor
Jones Day successfully represented a leading Engineering Procurement and Construction ("EPC") contractor in an international arbitration against the owner of a massive mining project in which the value of the claims and counterclaims between the parties totaled more than $140 million. The dispute, which was arbitrated under the ICC Rules, related to a $250 million contract for the construction of ore-processing facilities at one of South America's largest mines.
The owner advanced a wide array of claims against the EPC contractor, including complex invoicing and audit claims, allegations that the EPC contractor had failed to properly supervise project contractors and had schemed to avoid a contractual price cap, and numerous allegations of defective engineering and construction work premised on the facility's purported failure to meet the EPC contractor's contractual performance guarantees. The EPC contractor had asserted claims against the owner for millions of dollars in unpaid invoices.
Jones Day mounted a comprehensive defense to the owner's claims using numerous expert and fact witnesses to establish that the EPC contractor's work was not defective and that any alleged performance shortcomings were entirely due to the owner's own decision-making and operational errors. Jones Day worked with construction accounting experts to establish that the owner's billing-related claims were baseless and that the EPC contractor was entitled to a substantial net recovery for unpaid amounts due. Within months of submitting the EPC contractor's statement of defense and expert/fact evidence, the owner agreed to settle the dispute.
