It is rare for the Courts to issue judgments in August but, with all the uncertainty in the world at the moment, this month has seen no less than 6 awards in the TCC; and by far the most interesting one, is the decision of HHJ Halliwell in Lane End v Kingstone Civil Engineering (Case HT-2020-Man 000021).
In this case the request to the RICS for the appointment was made via email at 07:46 on the 20th March 2020 and later that day, in a meeting between the representatives of the Parties, Kingstone handed a copy of the Notice of Adjudication to Lane End. The Adjudication continued and the Adjudicator made an Award in favour of Kingstone in the sum of £356,439.19.
The Court refused to enforce the Award for the simple reason that the application to the RICS had been made prematurely. This case reinforces the point that the Notice of Adjudication has to be served prior to any application to appoint an Adjudicator. A failure to follow these simple rules meant that Kingstone ended up with a substantial legal bill rather than £356,439.19.
If you would like advice regarding Adjudications and how to conduct them within the rules please get in touch with Michael Tiplady of Wellesley Construction Services. He can be contacted via email: michaeltiplady@wellesley.uk.com