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PP 2005/21

Stroude v Beazer Homes Ltd [2005] EWCA Civ 265
This Court of Appeal case turned on the meaning of a provision in a planning agreement concerning the construction of a bypass.
The parties had conducted negotiations with a view to entering into a separate collaboration agreement, which was never concluded. One of the parties subsequently sought to adduce evidence of those negotiations in support of its argument over whether the planning agreement conferred mutual rights of access to facilitate the construction of the bypass.
The Court of Appeal reminded the parties that evidence of negotiations leading to the drawing up of a contract is not admissible for the purpose of construing that contract because only the final document records the consensus reached by the parties. It ruled that the same principle applies where a party to an agreement seeks to adduce evidence of negotiations relating to a separate contract.
Allyson Colby is an associate in the real estate group at Wragge & Co LLP

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