Adjudicator did not undermine previous decision

In John Graham Construction Ltd v Technicas Reunidas UK Ltd [2022] EWHC 155 (TCC), Morris J held that the decision of an adjudicator in a subsequent adjudication had not undermined a decision reached as the outcome of an earlier adjudication between the same parties. In so concluding Morris J drew what he termed a “key distinction” between the nature of the first decision (that is to say, what it decided) and the consequences of that decision. In the present case the dispute in the earlier adjudication had been one in which the issue to be decided had been the interpretation of the contract, whereas in the subsequent adjudication the issue was one as to the financial consequences of that interpretation. These were held to be different disputes. The real concern of the defendant in the present case was that the adjudicator in the subsequent adjudication had failed properly to apply the decision in the first adjudication but that was not an issue that related to the jurisdiction of the adjudicator and so did not give to the defendant ground to resist enforcement of the decision of the adjudicator.