Cases - Outwing Construction Ltd v Randall & Son Ltd
Record details
- Name
- Outwing Construction Ltd v Randall & Son Ltd
- Date
- [1999]; [1999]; (1999)
- Citation
- BLR 156; 64 Con LR 59; CILL 1482
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Construction Contracts - Adjudication - Civil Procedure - Issue of Summons - Abridgment of Time for Acknowledgement of Service - Costs - Summary Judgment - Enforcement - Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, section 108 - enforcement of adjudicator's decision
- Summary
-
Outwing were groundworks subcontractors undertaking works for Randall under the terms of DOM/1. Disputes arose as to the valuation of the final account. Outwing referred this dispute to adjudication and the adjudicator decided that Outwing should be paid the sum that they had applied for, in addition to the adjudicator's fee, the total amount due being £16,096.98.
Randall failed to pay the sum found due by the adjudicator within the timescale laid down by the adjudicator, so Outwing sought to enforce the decision in court and applied for summary judgement.
Prior to the hearing Randall paid the principal sum outstanding, but the parties could not agree on liability for legal costs. The matter therefore proceeded on the basis of costs only.
Outwing had successfully applied for an abridgement of the usual court timescale to bring this matter before the court unusually quickly. Randall had argued that Outwing were unjustified in doing so and that therefore Outwing were liable to pay Randall's additional costs incurred as a result.
The judge concluded that the issue of a summons to abridge time was justified. Action to enforce an adjudicator's decision is not comparable to the ordinary process of recovering an apparently undisputed debt. However, he did go on to say that it might not be appropriate to abridge time in every case.
The judge therefore found in favour of Outwing.