Laws, codes & regulations
Ruling determines no BCIPA service by email The Queensland Supreme Court recently handed down an important decision on electronic service of documents under the Building and Construction Industry of Payments Act 2004 (Qld) (BCIPA). Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, uploading a document to an electronic file uploading facility (such as Dropbox) and providing a link to the document does not constitute service of the document. Service via web-based, third-party hosted, document or project management systems, such as Project Centre or Aconex, is also likely to be ineffective.
Outline of the case The claimant sent an email to the respondent providing: •
mb b
Two adjudication application forms as attachments
[ 44 ] june/july 14
•
Dropbox links to documentation in support of each application (including the claimant’s submissions).
Notwithstanding that the parties had used Dropbox in previous correspondence, the respondent read the email and its attachments but did not examine the documents within the Dropbox links. Given that the whole of the adjudication application, technically, was not within the email itself, the question for the Court was whether the application had been effectively served on the respondent.
The decision The Court held that service of the adjudication applications, inclusive of the material within the Dropbox links, was not effective.
Dropbox At the outset, the Supreme Court noted that the documents within the Dropbox links were not part of the data contained in the email and its attachments: “The Dropbox facility is a service by which an electronic file is stored by a third party remotely so that any computer (with the relevant authority) can view the file”. The Court went on to make the following distinction: •
An email with attachments is a way of communicating information
•
A Dropbox link is a way of communicating