In case of concurrent delay (or any delay in general), the court will review the contract and the statutory law, and to some extent will take into account a previous relationship between parties that was established during the contract performance. Imperative rules (if any) of the statutory law will always prevail, and all other issues will be governed by the contract. In general, there could be three reasons that would grant the contractor a pardon and sometimes provide a right for reimbursement or right to claim damages/penalties in case of the delay: (a) default on the behalf of the employer, (b) force major event, or (c) another reason stipulated by the contract. The history of relationship is important because the parties most likely shall treat similar cases in the same manner and the court may pay attention to it.
In most cases, the contractor must suspend the work, notify the employer about such suspension and reasons thereto, and then the contractor and the employer would most likely sign an additional agreement to the contract or will have to settle a dispute in court or via other means.
If there are two or more (concurrent or not) reasons for delay, each party will need to prove the event, which it refers to, and, what is more important, will need to prove the whole period of delay and extension of time requested, as well as damages/penalties (if applicable).
The contractor will be entitled to receive the amount of reimbursement, damages and / or penalties from employer in the amount that the contractor will be able to prove. Thus, the situation may differ from case to case. For example, if the employer failed to deliver the materials timely to the contractor, the contractor had to declare a delay and would be entitled for reimbursement of damages for idle time. In case, any force major event affecting the contractor starts later, and during such event the employer delivers the materials, we might assume that the contractor will be able to claim damages for the whole or most period of the delay (including force major that would otherwise be not reimbursable), in case the contractor will be able to prove, that he could finish the works before force major event, in case the employer had delivered the materials on time. However, the positive outcome of such claim for contractor is not guaranteed in case of court dispute.
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