ADJUDICATOR’s AWARD HELD TO BE IMMEDIATELY BINDING

A v B (unreported, Outer House of the Court of Session, 17 December 2002)

In A v B (unreported, Outer House of the Court of Session, 17 December 2002), Lord Drummond Young followed the decision of Lord Macfadyen in The Construction Group Centre Ltd v The Highland Council [2002] BLR 476 (on which see our January 2003 issue, pp.5–11) and held that the decision of an adjudicator was binding when it was pronounced and that the defenders were not entitled to invoke retention as a defence to enforcement of the award when they had not raised this point before the adjudicator. Lord Drummond Young further held that a clause in the contract between the parties which stated that ‘no party shall … make any application whatsoever to a competent court in relation to … the decision of the Adjudicator’ until certain events had occurred applied only to applications to review the decision of the adjudicator and did not prevent a party from taking immediate steps to enforce an adjudicator’s award.