The scope of a dispute, jurisdiction and natural justice


In AECOM Design Build Ltd v Staptina Engineering Services Ltd [2017] EWHC 723 (TCC) Fraser J held that an adjudicator did have jurisdiction to reach the decision which she had reached and that she had not breached the principles of natural justice in reaching that decision. The claimant’s attempt to confine the adjudicator to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response to the submissions made to her was held to be unduly narrow. A dispute cannot be defined by its potential answers but is to be defined by the matters identified in the notice of adjudication, the pleadings at the adjudication, including the defences raised, pre-adjudication correspondence claims and assertions and the evidence submitted to the adjudicator.