Cases - Quartzelec Ltd v Honeywell Control Systems Ltd

Record details

Name
Quartzelec Ltd v Honeywell Control Systems Ltd
Date
[2008]
Citation
EWHC 3315 (TCC)
Legislation
Keywords
Adjudication - notice of adjudication - decision unenforceable - apparent unfairness of decision - doubt whether this decision represents the law
Summary

In this case the adjudicator concluded that the notice of adjudication was drafted in such a way as to precluded him from dealing with part of the defence raised by the responding party. The court held that the adjudicator was wrong to do so and as a result his decision was unenforceable even though the part of the defence that he had failed to deal with was worth only a fraction of the total sum that he had decided was due.

The judge acknowledged the apparent unfairness of his decision but felt constrained by his inability to sever the adjudicator’s decision and enforce payment of a lesser sum.

There are now some doubts as to whether this decision represents the current state of the law, particularly in view of the fact that the part of the defence that the adjudicator had failed to deal with was worth only a fraction of the sum that he found was otherwise payable.