ADJUDICATION AND APPARENT BIAS

In Fileturn Ltd v Royal Garden Hotel Ltd [2010] EWHC 1736 (TCC), [2010] All ER (D) 128 (Jul), Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart dismissed an objection to the enforcement of an adjudicator’s award on the ground of apparent bias on the part of the adjudicator. The claim of apparent bias was based on a pre-existing commercial relationship between the adjudicator and the claims consultant who represented the claimant in the adjudication. After a careful review of the evidence, Edwards-Stuart J held that an informed and fair-minded observer would not have concluded that there was a real possibility that the adjudicator was biased.