This case has gone through the stages of first instance, second instance, protest, and retrial.
The two parties signed a construction contract, agreeing to fix the project price of about 12 million yuan.
In this case, there is no applicable premise, so the original judgment was not inappropriate.
If a construction contract with a fixed price agreed upon in the summary of practical experience is invalid, can the people’s court entrust appraisal to determine the project payment price? This is a matter of legal application.
2、 In July 2010, the apartment building project was completed and accepted, and Kangmou Company has paid 26 million yuan for the project.
5、 The Supreme Court held in a retrial that if the construction contract is invalid, the agreement on the project price is only of reference value and does not naturally have legal binding force.
Of course, the people’s court can also determine the amount of project cost directly based on the application for appraisal of project cost submitted by the party concerned without reference to the application.
Therefore, it is difficult for the employer to obtain the support of the people’s court to raise a plea of non appraisal based on the fixed price agreed in the construction contract.
The court of first instance determined the project price based on the project cost appraisal, and there is no mistake; The applicable premise of Article 22 of the original Construction Project Interpretation is that the contract is valid.
The provision that the project price is settled based on fixed pricing and does not support project cost appraisal is premised on the validity of the construction contract.
Accordingly, in the case of invalid contracts, although the agreement on the adoption of fixed prices has a “reference” value, it is not necessarily legally binding and cannot be directly used as a basis for handling case disputes.
The focus of the dispute in this case is whether, when a construction contract agreed to be settled at a fixed price is invalid, can the parties apply for appraisal of the entire project cost as a basis for settlement? The Supreme Court believes that there are two main reasons for this: First, the agreement on the price in an invalid contract does not necessarily have legal binding force.
According to Article 22 of the original Construction Project Interpretation, “The parties agree to settle the project price at a fixed price, and if one party requests to appraise the construction project cost, it is not supported.” The application of this Article is premised on the validity of the construction contract, that is, on the premise that the parties’ agreement on settling the project price at a fixed price is valid, It has no scope for application when the contract is invalid.
1、 The court of second instance held that the construction contract was invalid, and based on the identified project funds, it judged that Kang Mou Company paid 6 million yuan to Hong Mou Company.
Kangmou company appealed to the highest inspection authority.
According to relevant laws and regulations, Article 793 of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China (implemented on January 1, 2021), the construction contract for a construction project is invalid.
Although the construction contract stipulates a fixed price for pricing, during the construction process, if the employer increases the amount of work or changes the project design, and the contractor is unable to determine the project price, it should pay attention to reviewing the effectiveness of the construction contract and make a decision on whether to apply to the people’s court for project cost appraisal.
If the construction contract is invalid, the people’s court can still conduct project cost appraisal, and use the appraisal opinion as the final settlement basis.
It should be pointed out that when the construction contract is valid, the agreement on the project price is also valid.
2、 The application of Article 22 of the original Construction Project Interpretation is premised on the validity of the contract.
During the construction process, Kangmou Company added engineering design.
The people’s court can conduct cost appraisal within the scope of increasing the project quantity or changing the project design, and then determine the project price.
Article 2 of the original Construction Project Interpretation stipulates that “the construction contract of a construction project is invalid, but the construction project has passed the completion acceptance, and the contractor requests to pay the project price according to the contract agreement, which should be supported.”.
The ruling rules formulated by the Supreme Court in this case have great guiding significance.
Due to a dispute between the two parties over the settlement amount of project funds, Hongmou Company sued Kangmou Company to the court.
First, the construction contract is invalid, and the fixed price agreement has reference value and cannot be directly applied.
3、 Upon the application of a Hongmou company, the court of first instance entrusted a project cost agency to conduct cost appraisal, and the appraisal agency confirmed that the total project cost was approximately 32 million yuan.
4、 The Supreme Court protested that due to the contractual agreement between the two parties to settle the project at a fixed price, the application for engineering cost appraisal by Hongmou Company should not be supported in accordance with the provisions of Article 22 of the original Construction Project Interpretation, and the original judgment was wrong in the application of the law.
Secondly, if there is a dispute over project cost, the people’s court may entrust a cost agency to determine the project price.
According to the first paragraph of Article 793 of the Civil Code (Article 2 of the original Construction Project Interpretation), the construction contract is invalid, but if the construction project passes the acceptance check, the agreement on the project price in the construction contract has reference value.
According to Article 793 of the Civil Code, “If the construction contract for a construction project is invalid, but the construction project has passed the acceptance check, the contractor may be compensated at a discount based on the agreement on the project price in the contract.” At the same time, Article 28 of the “Construction Project Interpretation (I)” stipulates: “The parties agree to settle the project price at a fixed price, and if one party requests an appraisal of the construction project cost, the people’s court will not support it.” According to the above provisions, can we reach the conclusion that “when a construction contract is invalid, it must be settled at the fixed price agreed in the contract”? This article reveals the adjudication rules of similar cases through typical cases of the Supreme Court.
However, if the construction project has passed the acceptance check, the contractor may be compensated at a discount based on the agreement on the project price in the contract.
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Brief Introduction: Before Hongmou won the bid, Kangmou Company contracted the apartment building project to Hongmou Company for construction.
“If the construction contract is invalid, the agreement on the project price only has the legal effect of reference and does not have the legal effect of direct application.”.
