Building Law Monthly
“True value” adjudications: same or substantially similar dispute?
In Bexheat Ltd v Essex Services Group Ltd [2022] EWHC 936 (TCC), O’Farrell J held that the claimant was entitled to enforce
by way of summary judgment the decision of an adjudicator. The defendant had sought to rely on a number of defences to the
claim, but all were rejected by O’Farrell J. One of the submissions advanced on behalf of the defendant was that the decision
should not be enforced because the adjudicator had purported to decide a matter which had been decided in a previous adjudication
between the parties. This submission was rejected by O’Farrell J because the previous adjudication had dealt with the true
value of the application for payment in an earlier time period, and the issue in the adjudication which the claimant sought
to enforce was a different one in so far as that dispute was one as to the validity of a purported pay less notice issued
by the defendant and not the true value of the application for payment. The case once again highlights the difficulties that
a party can create for itself by failing to issue a timely pay less notice.