Adjudication, natural justice and severance


In Bell Building Projects Ltd v Arnold Clark Automobiles Ltd [2017] CSOH 55 Lord Tyre held that an adjudicator had not breached the principles of natural justice in offering to visit the premises of one of the parties provided that he was accompanied by the other party and in providing the parties with a limited period of time in which to respond to his requests for information. In concluding that there had been no breach of the principles of natural justice, Lord Tyre took account of the complexity of the adjudication and the need to reach a decision within a short period of time. Had he found there to have been a breach of the principles of natural justice, he would not have severed the part of the decision found to be unenforceable and enforced the remainder of the decision.