Natural justice and an alleged failure to consider a defence

In Manor Co-Living Ltd v RY Construction Ltd [2022] EWHC 2715 (TCC), Mr Adam Constable KC, sitting as a judge of the High Court, held that the claimant was not entitled to a declaration that an adjudicator had breached the principles of natural justice in declining to consider, and in excluding from his consideration, the claimant's case that it had a lawful entitlement at common law to terminate the contract with the defendant. The defence on which the claimant wished to rely was that it had accepted the defendant's repudiatory breach of contract. The reason for the failure of the claimant's case was that the question of whether the claimant had accepted any repudiatory breach committed by the defendant had never been in issue in the adjudication. Given that this question had never been in issue in the adjudication, it could not be said that the adjudicator had breached the principles of natural justice in failing to deal with a case which had never been advanced.