Practical Law

The TCC’s judgment in RWE Npower Renewables Ltd v J N Bentley Ltd got me thinking about the possibility of “appealing” an adjudicator’s decision. While we all accept that adjudicators’ decisions are of a temporary or interim binding nature, in practice, court or arbitration proceedings rarely follow on from the majority of decisions. That means many decisions stand as determining the parties’ rights and obligations forever (which sounds a very long time!).

But what if you don’t like the adjudicator’s decision, is there anything else you can do rather than proceeding to a full blown trial? Continue reading →

A couple of weeks ago I went to Edinburgh to give a talk to the Society of Construction Law on global claims in the wake of Walter Lilly v Mackay. However, both before and after the talk, a number of the Scottish delegates were more interested in talking about their very own Mackay case, White and Mackay v Blyth & Blyth, as Lord Malcolm’s latest judgment had been published the day before.

Continue reading →

Adjudication enforcement decisions often throw up interesting discussion points and two judgments from last week are no exception. The first concerned Lord Malcolm’s decision in Whyte and Mackay v Blyth & Blyth, where the court considered the adjudicator had breached the rules of natural justice as there was a “very significant omission” in his decision and reasoning. While that of itself would make a good blog topic (and is something Jonathan will be looking at), it was the application of Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that is more likely to attract commentators north and south of the border. In fact, Alastair Walls has written about it today.

The second judgment, Ramsey J’s decision in Willmott Dixon v Newlon Housing Trust, is the one I’m interested in. Continue reading →