It is a legal term which is derived
from a Latin expression referring to things that are too minimal or
unimportant to be considered太瑣碎或不重要的事物. It is
taken from a longer phrase which translates as ‘the law does not concern
itself with trifles法律不涉及瑣事’. What this means in practice is that generally the law does not
encourage parties to pursue legal action for breaches of rules or agreements
where the impact is minimal. In case of Rea v Wellington City Council [2007]
NZRMA 449. the Court has detailed explanation 1.
In a construction, the term 'De Minimis'
often arises in relation to Practical Completion. Practical
completion is often certified when there are De Minimis (very minor) items 'not
affecting beneficial occupancy' that remain incomplete and that can be put
right without undue interference or disturbance to occupants, i.e. the client
is able to take possession of the works and use them for their intended
purpose. However, the legal basis for this is not clear, and unless the
contract states otherwise, if the works are not complete, practical completion
need not be certified.
Practical Completion means that the works
are fully completed to a state to permit the Employer to enter into full
beneficial occupation, i.e. no outstanding works remain to be carried out save
for very minor items of work being left incomplete on the ' De Minimis '
principle (the law does not concern itself with trifles).
The difficult question is whether the
phrase covers the situation where the works are finished (save for very minor
items) but there are also a number of apparent defects. In this connection, a
potential problem arises due to the wording of the defects clause which
provides that the Architect's power to order the remedying of defects during
the defects liability period is limited to those defects 'which shall appear'
during that period.
Refer to law case in H W Nevill (Sunblest)
Ltd v. Wm. Press & Son Ltd (1981) 2, the court said that “I think
that the word "practically" in clause 15(1) gave the architect a
discretion to certify that William Press had fulfilled its obligation under
clause 21(1) where very minor de minimis works had not been carried out,
but if there were any patent defects in what William Press had done the
architect could not have given a certificate of practical completion.” Apparent
defects of a very trivial nature can be treated in the same way as outstanding
works, being similarly subject to the same 'de minimis' principle.
Some examples of De Minimis works 3 :
the works unlikely to affect the structural strength or support functions of a
party structure or cause damage to the neighbour’s side of it, such as
re-plastering, shallow chasing for electrical wiring or inserting power
sockets, and screws to support shelves, kitchen cupboards, and the like.
However, the test for whether an effect
is De Minimis is different from, and more stringent than, the test for whether an effect is minor or less than minor.
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