Adjudication, assignment and jurisdiction


In Mailbox (Birmingham) Ltd v Galliford Try Construction Ltd [2017] EWHC 67 (TCC) O’Farrell J held that an adjudicator did have jurisdiction to decide the dispute which had been referred to him. Although the claimant had validly assigned its interest under the contract to a security trustee, that interest had been re-assigned back to the claimant in equity by the time of the reference to adjudication. The claimant therefore had the beneficial ownership of all the rights and benefits under the contract and had been entitled to start adjudication proceedings against the defendant. It was also held that it had not been unreasonable for the defendant to challenge the jurisdiction of the adjudicator so that it was not to be penalised by the award of interest which was assessed at the usual commercial court rate of 2% above the Bank of England base rate.