Cases - Barr Ltd v Law Mining Ltd
Record details
- Name
- Barr Ltd v Law Mining Ltd
- Date
- (2003)
- Citation
- SLT 488
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Construction - adjudication - adjudication award - several disputes - enforcement - whether scheme permits more than one dispute to be referred in a single notice - whether separate disputes - effect of rescission of contract - Scheme For Construction Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 1998
- Summary
-
This matter arose out of two adjudications: in the first the defenders were ordered to pay the sum of £313,760.84 and in the second the defenders were ordered to pay the sum of £844,742.63.
One issue in each case was whether, if the adjudicator had exceeded his jurisdiction, it was possible to separate the 'good part' from the 'bad part' of a decision, thus allowing the former to be enforced by granting decree for payment. This proposition was agreed by both parties and therefore did not form part of the judgment.
Other issues related to whether more than one dispute was referred in a single notice. The judge accepted that the scheme did not permit more than one dispute to be referred in a single notice but concluded on the facts of this case that the matters referred were in fact several matters relating to a single dispute and did not amount to separate disputes.
There was also an issue as to whether the contract had been rescinded, and if it had what the adjudicator's jurisdiction would be after the rescission. The adjudicator took the view that rescission was a matter for the court alone and therefore made his decision ignoring the alleged rescission. The court decided that the adjudicator would only have had jurisdiction to proceed down this route if he had first decided that there had been no rescission.
Having made no such decision, he had no jurisdiction to determine the part of the dispute affected by that issue.