Entitlement to bring adjudication proceedings

In Darchem Engineering Ltd v Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O'Rourke Delivery Ltd (formerly Laing O'Rourke Construction Ltd) [2026] EWHC 220 (TCC) the principal issue before Constable J was whether the claimant had been entitled to refer a dispute to adjudication. It was held that it was not because the entitlement lay with the joint venture entity of which the claimant was a member and not with the claimant as an individual entity. Consequently, the claimant was not entitled to enforce the decision of the adjudicator because the adjudicator had no jurisdiction to decide the dispute which the claimant had referred to adjudication. The decision was reached as a matter of interpretation of the contract between the parties and so the case does not stand for the universal proposition that parties to a joint venture agreement can never individually refer a dispute to adjudication. But the case does stand as a warning to parties to a joint venture agreement of the need to consider the question whether the entitlement to refer a dispute to adjudication should reside with the joint venture entity itself or whether it should also be given to the individual members of the joint venture.