August 7, 2023 | less than a minute read

An expensive outcome: adjudication enforcement

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Karen Morean

Partner

Get in touch

Karen Morean

Partner

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The summary in Practical Law of the recent case (Home Group Ltd v MPS Housing Ltd) was a salient reminder of the risks associated with adjudication enforcement. In this instance, the Claimant made and beat its Part 36 offer. Although the Defendant submitted that the Part 36 offer was not made in a genuine attempt to settle the claim, the judge's view is that the court normally takes a robust approach to Part 36 offers and the consequences which follow when such an offer is bettered at trial. This meant that the Claimant was awarded a higher interest rate from the end of the expiry of the relevant period, costs on an indemnity basis and an additional amount capped at £75,000.

When viewed in that light, resisting adjudication enforcement may result in an expensive outcome indeed.

The judge was concerned that the contractor's position was "strategically driven in an attempt to create a jurisdictional challenge that no dispute had crystallised" and that it was "setting up its jurisdictional challenge" at a time when it could have been working on the material supporting the employer's claim for losses. The outcome demonstrates that such a strategy had an expensive outcome since the adjudicator's decision was enforced.