Contractor claims baseline was never approved? wouldn't it be the defacto BL either way?

1. The question is was the baseline ever submitted and was it timely ?

2. Is there a process and a requirement to Approve the baseline ?

3. If so who had the responsibility to approve it ?

Just because a schedule is submitted does not mean that it is a good schedule or that it has passed several test and that it has been vetted and validated hence that is why there is an approval process. 

The first update would NEVER be a baseline. As baseline is the original as planned schedule WITHOUT PROGRESS.

I think you would need to answer the 3 quesitons before you can say that you have a defacto baseline schedule.

What if a baseline was submitted.
The paperwork was lost regarding the comments.
A few months later, the updates start.  
It is assumed the 1st update has incorporated the comments.
Which would be the baseline?  
Sometimes these jobs are messy, there probably is not a document that says "you have made teh changes, your baseline is approved" - there is some gray area caused by turnover, lack of documentation, priorities, etc.

The project falls behind, - something would likely have to become the defacto baseline.  

As far as I am aware, generally in a document control setting, initial baseline schedule submissions should not be rejected unless there is clear contradiction with planning methodologies and  the key milestones do not line up with whatever is indicated in the contract.

This 1st submission will likely be "Approved with Comments" and be used as a baseline, with the 1st update incorporating the aforementioned comments. Depending on the progression and duration of the project, an updated version can be issued 3-6 months later to capture any Change Orders, Change in Sequences, revision in dates etc for rebaseline purposes.

This is a grey area from my experience because:

01. Depends on the contract conditions. Most used contracts have a specific period during which the Client/Engineer/Consultant has the right to comment/reject the schedule. After this period the submitted schedule is approved by default, if the Client/Engineer/Consultant did not make comments/reject the schedule.

02. Depends on the contract conditions. Is the Contractor allowed to start work if the baseline is not approved?

03. Good faith of parties, that governs all contracts. It is not of good faith in a contract for  the Client/Engineer/Consultant not to comment/reject on a baseline schedule for 6 months (as an example) after the work has begun, just because he has no contractual time period to do so. Also if Client/Engineer/Consultant  did not instruct the Contractor regarding the execution, for 6 month (as an example), (denial of execution of certain activities, for example); then how can the Client/Engineer/Consultant say he did not approve the schedule?

From my point of view the baseline schedule belongs to the Contractor, it just a transparent way to show how he will do the work. It is not the purpose of the schedule to let the Client/Engineer/Consultant dictate to the Contractor how to do the work; by this logic the Client would to the work without the Contractor.

Best regards,
Bogdan

- If the Baseline is not approved because it did not merit approval due ot the comments raised by the Consultant / Client and cited comments were never addressed by the Contractor then it is the Contractor's fault. In such case, the EOT Requests / Claims based on the un-approved schedule shall be evaluated by the Consultant while considering cited comments. 

- If the Baseline is not approved becasuse the Consultant / Client failed to raise comments on the Schedule within the approval time (of submittals) specified in teh Contract, then, in my opinion, it may be considered as default Baseline and the Contractor may start monitoring on it.