ADJUDICATION, APPROBATION/REPROBATION AND SET-OFF

R J Knapman Ltd v Richards [2006] EWHC 2518 (TCC), 12 October 2006

In R J Knapman Ltd v Richards [2006] EWHC 2518 (TCC), 12 October 2006, Judge Peter Coulson QC held that the claimant was not seeking to enforce part of an adjudicator’s decision while seeking at the same time to repudiate other parts of it. The claimant was simply attempting to enforce the money element of the adjudicator’s decision. To the extent that the claimant was in breach of contract in not complying with the decision of the adjudicator in other respects, the defendants had a remedy under the contract and so this did not deprive the claimant of its entitlement to enforce the adjudicator’s decision. It was also held that it did not follow logically from the decision of the adjudicator that the defendants were entitled to a particular sum by way of liquidated damages which could be set-off against the sums found by the adjudicator to be due to the claimants.