NO AGREEMENT TO GIVE ADJUDICATOR JURISDICTION

In Aedifice Partnership Ltd v Shah [2010] EWHC 2106 (TCC), [2010] All ER (D) 65 (Aug) Mr Justice Akenhead held that an adjudicator had not been given jurisdiction to decide his own jurisdiction and that there had been no express or implied agreement that he should have such jurisdiction. Further, he held that the defendant had entered an adequate reservation in relation to the jurisdiction of the adjudicator and that he had effectively maintained that reservation throughout the adjudication. The judgment of Akenhead J also contains a helpful re-statement of the central principles that will be applied by a court when considering such jurisdictional issues and any reservation in relation thereto.

The facts

In the present proceedings the claimant, Aedifice Partnership Ltd, sought to enforce a decision of an adjudicator. The defendant, Mr Shah, resisted enforcement on the ground that the adjudicator had no jurisdiction to issue the decision which he did. The claimant in turn submitted that the defendant had agreed to give the adjudicator jurisdiction, a claim which was resisted by the defendant. Thus the central issue in this case was whether the parties had agreed to give jurisdiction to the adjudicator and whether the defendant had maintained any reservation he had entered in relation to the jurisdiction of the adjudicator.