If your adjudication claim鈥檚 feathers are all tattered and torn, it ought to fail. But what if your kindly adjudicator decides that it might turn into a swan later on?
The adjudicator on this dispute had no doubt that the contractor was entitled to further time. He had bumped up the extension from 21 days to 119. He then gave the contractor a thick ear about its loss and expense claim for the prolonged stay on site. His award said: 鈥淚 consider the claims made to be extravagant and exaggerated 鈥� I do not dispute that some claim over and above the 拢40k may be due (already paid) and I would grant the contractor leave to pursue this via a further adjudication if it so wishes.鈥�
Hmmm. I confess I have never heard of that approach before. An adjudicator doesn鈥檛 have the power to give leave to bring a matter to a future adjudicator, instead of deciding it themselves. Put it this way: if the claim document served up in the adjudication is something of a pig鈥檚 breakfast, then the adjudicator should announce that it fails. The adjudicator isn鈥檛 there to turn it into a tasty brunch. The fellow was being ever so helpful. He was helping the party who was about to get nothing at all, to get upwards of 拢294,000. And if you were on the other side of all this, you would be mighty peeved, wouldn鈥檛 you.
If the claim served up in the adjudication is something of a pig鈥檚 breakfast, then the adjudicator should announce that it fails. He isn鈥檛 there to turn it into a tasty brunch
Paddison Construction had undertaken the building of a community centre at Handsworth for Birmingham council. An extension of time and a loss and expense debate came to adjudication. And