Adjudicators’ decisions are often attacked in enforcement proceedings, with the party resisting enforcement arguing that the adjudicator lacked jurisdiction or breached the rules of natural justice (or both). If those arguments are successful, not only is the adjudicator’s decision unenforceable but, following PC Harrington v Systech, the adjudicator may not be entitled to be paid either. At the time of the Court of Appeal’s judgment, I said that one of the lessons for adjudicators must surely be to take care when dealing with jurisdictional issues. (I also said a fair few other things too!)
It has been a while but, at the end of last term, the issue was before the courts again, this time in Gary Kitt and EC Harris LLP v The Laundry Building Ltd and Etcetera Construction Services Ltd (which, just like PC Harrington v Systech, was also before Akenhead J). Continue reading
