108 THE LAW AFFECTING ENGINEEES 



6. Accuracy of bills of quantities. An employer does not 

 warrant the accuracy of bills of quantities ; and the prudent 

 contractor will verify them for himself before making his 

 tender. In one case a builder who had contracted to build a 

 church for dl,998 found that it really cost him with extras 

 ^3,600. The increase in cost was due to inaccuracies in the 

 bills of quantities. It was held that the builder could not 

 recover the excess (Sherren v. Harrison, 1860, Times, Feb. 8 ; 

 and see further as to the results of mistakes, Chap. VI., 19, 

 ante). In another case it was sought to establish a custom or 

 usage to the effect that when tenders are invited for the 

 erection of works in accordance with plans, the person ten- 

 dering is not expected to verify the quantities for himself, but 

 is expected and intended to assume their correctness, and that 

 if such quantities turn out to be greater or less than the actual 

 quantities, the price is to be reduced or increased by an 

 amount ascertained and determined by the scale of prices 

 given in the tender as the scale by which payments are to be 

 determined. The Court of Appeal refused to recognise any 

 such custom which, in effect, contradicted the terms of the 

 contract (Re Bcmrose, Ford v. Bemrose, supra, 1902, 18 T. L. R. 

 443). Speaking of the bills of quantities and specification in 

 that case, the Master of the Kolls said: " It is an estimate an 

 estimate which a reasonable person such as a builder would 

 probably act on as being an honest representation made by a 

 skilled person but beyond that it does not go. The builder 

 has the right to make his own estimate, and, in point of fact, 

 in this particular contract, when you come to look at one of 

 the provisions of the specification which accompanied it, it is 

 made a term that ' the person whose tender is accepted must 

 deposit with the architect, within fourteen days of acceptance 

 of tender, a priced bill of quantities of all the works, the same 

 as that on which the tender is based.' So he accepts the 

 obligation of himself furnishing a bill of quantities, and of 

 course it is much easier for him, and much shorter for him, 

 to put the prices on the specification that has been sent to 

 him, and, if need be, adopt the quantities that have been sent 

 to him, but it is part; of his obligation to furnish one, and he 

 is not relieved from the obligation because he chooses to take 

 the quantities which are furnished him by the building-owner. 

 That he has done in this case. It is a perfectly reasonable 

 thing to do, because there is no suggestion of anything but 



