Cases - Ballast plc v The Burrell Company (Construction Management) Ltd
Record details
- Name
- Ballast plc v The Burrell Company (Construction Management) Ltd
- Date
- (2001); [2001]
- Citation
- (CSOH) BLR529
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Construction contracts - adjudication - adjudicator's decision - jurisdiction - extent of adjudicator's powers - whether adjudicator misconstrued powers - whether payments due
- Summary
-
The parties had entered into a construction contract pursuant to which a dispute has arisen over entitlement to payment. Ballast were claiming a gross sum of approximately £520,000 more than Burrell had paid. Of the 4 issues referred to the adjudicator, the adjudicator decided that 2 were not valid, 1 was not applicable and 1 was not granted.
The judge concluded that it was difficult to understand the adjudicator's decision and to determine on what precise basis he reached his decision that the remedies sought were not valid. So far as he could make sense of what the adjudicator had written, the judge concluded that the adjudicator appeared to have decided that he could not carry out an evaluation, or find any payments due, because the parties had departed from the terms of the preprinted contract in a number of respects. The judge concluded that as a result of that error, the adjudicator misconstrued his powers, and, in consequence, failed to exercise his jurisdiction to determine the dispute. His decision is therefore a nullity.
The judge's decision was upheld on appeal.