20 Apr 2020Building ConsultancyThe Coronavirus and the time for completion of construction contracts As I sit and write this article the UK remains in the grip of a virus that has brought the majority of construction projects to a standstill. Up and down the land Employers, Contractors, Sub-Contractors and Suppliers are reaching into their filing cabinets to search for the contracts they entered into in order to see where they stand. Our telephones have been busy all week with calls from anxious clients.
20 Mar 2020Dispute ResolutionAdjudicators and Allegations of Fraud Allegations of fraud are not an unusual occurrence during adjudication proceedings. An allegation might be made that a party has fabricated a document, forged a signature, deliberately overstated an application for payment or even arranged for a house break-in, in order to steal key documents that an opponent may intend to rely upon. The list goes on.
10 Oct 2019MEADOWSIDE BUILDING DEVELOPMENTS LTD v 12-18 HILL STREET MANAGEMENT COMPANY The adjudicator’s decision in the insolvent contractor’s favour should not be enforced because the funding agreement between the liquidator and its agent was not merely champertous but was also an abuse of process and because the contractor had not offered adequate security for adverse costs orders
10 Oct 2019LJH PAVING LTD v MEERES CIVIL ENGINEERING LTD The facts that the sub-contractor contended that insufficient substantiation had been provided by the sub-sub-contractor for its payment claim and made requests for particulars which were not answered until the adjudication had commenced did not mean that no dispute had arisen in respect of the claim
12 Sep 2019ICCT LTD v PINTO There was an ad hoc agreement for an adjudication by the homeowner’s participation in the adjudication and the adjudicator therefore had jurisdiction to make an award against him despite the works being to a residential dwelling
12 Sep 2019DICKIE & MOORE LTD v MCLEISH The adjudicator was not in breach of the rules of natural justice by using his pupil in the way he did which included the pupil populating his Scott schedule and coming to his own conclusions as to whether a dispute had crystallised and the extension of time claim
13 Aug 2019MARS BLACK SHEEP HOTELS LTD v DOUGLAS & STEWART UK LTD The employer was not entitled to an interdict (injunction) preventing the contractor from proceeding with its adjudication despite the employer’s allegation that it had been induced to enter the contract on the basis of the contractor’s misrepresentation that it was a substantial commercial entity
8 Aug 2019UNIVERSAL SEALANTS (UK) LTD v SANDERS PLANT AND WASTE MANAGEMENT LTD The contract for the supply of concrete was not a “construction operation” within the meaning of section 105(1) of the Construction Act and the adjudicator therefore lacked jurisdiction
7 Aug 2019COREBUILD LTD v CLEAVER The adjudicator was in breach of the rules of natural justice by going off on “a frolic of his own” in making a determinative finding, namely that the homeowners were in repudiatory breach of contract, on the basis of a factual finding which had not been argued for
9 Jul 2019MG SCAFFOLDING (OXFORD) LTD v PALMLOCH LTD The adjudicator’s decision against the employer company which was the defendant in the enforcement proceedings and the entity which contracted with the contractor should be enforced despite the responding party in the adjudicator being named as the company’s trading name
28 Jun 2019BABCOCK MARINE (CLYDE) LTD v HS BARRIER COATINGS LTD The contractor’s application to stay the enforcement proceedings brought by the employer in respect of the adjudicator’s award to it in the adjudication should be granted on the basis that the appropriate forum for the proceedings was the courts in Scotland
25 Jun 2019WILLOW CORP SARL v MTD CONTRACTORS LTD The balance of the adjudicator’s award to the contractor having deducted the liquidated damages which the adjudicator should have awarded to the employer should be enforced by way of summary judgment
