Adjudication and Limitation Periods

In Aspect Contracts (Asbestos) Ltd v Higgins Construction plc [2013] EWHC 1322 (TCC), [2013] All ER (D) 296 (May) Mr Justice Akenhead declined to imply into the contract between the parties a term that, in the event that a dispute was referred to adjudication pursuant to the Scheme for Construction Contracts and one party paid money to the other in compliance with the decision of the adjudicator, the party making the payment remained entitled to have the dispute finally determined by legal proceedings and, if or to the extent that the dispute was finally determined in its favour, to have that money repaid to it. In short, the effect of payment was not to confer a new cause of action upon the party making the payment and to re-start the clock for limitation purposes. This being the case, a party who wishes to challenge the decision of an adjudicator should move swiftly to do so, given that time will begin to run, not from the date on which it made payment in compliance with the decision of the adjudicator, but from the time at which the cause of action arose under the underlying construction contract.