Defence of serial adjudications and resolution of the underlying dispute

We acted for our main contractor client, who was faced with serial adjudications brought by one of its subcontractors falling a breakdown in their relationship.

The subcontractor initially attempted to seek declarations that would allow it to re-value their works on a re-measurement basis, and we were successful in defeating those arguments, so preventing the contractor from attempting to dramatically increase the quantum of its claim in subsequent adjudications.

Next, the subcontractor attempted a “smash and grab” adjudication, which reduced its claim to the value of its disputed application. We succeeded in defeating this and related adjudications, in which the subcontractor was unsuccessful in persuading the adjudicator that provisions of the Scheme needed to be implied into the contract and that, when so implied, they rendered our client’s Pay Less notices out of time.

Finally, we successfully defended an adjudication brought on a “true value” basis in relation to a key part of the subcontractor’s disputed interim application, persuading the adjudicator that a claimed variation in fact related to matters which were within the scope of the original specification and drawings.

On the basis of those successful outcomes, the subcontractor’s claim were reduced at best to a fraction of its original claims, and the parties were then able to resolve matters on a full and final basis.