Cases - David John Cartwright v Lydia Fay

Record details

Name

David John Cartwright v Lydia Fay

Date

[2005]

Citation

County Court (small claim) (unreported)

Legislation

• Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999
• Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

Keywords

Construction contracts - adjudication - adjudicator's costs and expenses - third party rights - power to impose liability for fees on parties - incorporation of adjudication rules - whether employer is consumer - whether term unfair - Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, section 1 - Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, regulations 3, 5, schedule 2

Summary

The court held that under the adjudication rules, an adjudicator is given an express right to impose liability for all or part of his fee on one or all of the parties in his decision. If the contract incorporated the adjudication rules, by virtue of those rules, it expressly provided that the adjudicator may enforce the term which relates to his fees.

The court further ruled that a party who signs a contract to signify acceptance is taken to agree to all the terms whether or not they have read all of them. The court accepted that Lydia Fay was a consumer for the purposes of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999, but as there was no imbalance or detriment to her, despite the fact that clauses had not been individually negotiated, and in particular no hindrance to exercising her right to take legal action, the contract clauses in question were not held to be unfair under the 1999 Regulations.