Some recent court decisions provide valuable guidance to the
construction sector in Ireland on the principles that apply when
the requirement to arbitrate is at issue, as well as giving the
courts an opportunity to re-confirm their support for the arbitral
process.
Facts: In XPL Engineering v K&J Townmore
Construction Ltd [2019] IEHC 665 K&J Townmore
Construction Ltd (the "contractor")
engaged XPL Engineering (the
"sub-contractor") to provide mechanical
works on projects under two contracts. Differences arose between
the parties and the sub-contractor issued court proceedings to
recover sums claimed. The contractor responded that the contracts
required that disputes go to arbitration. Four years later, the
sub-contractor issued summary proceedings to recover the sums it
claimed. While the sub-contractor agreed that parts of the dispute
could go to adjudication, it wanted to obtain summary judgment for
the remainder of the claim where it said there was no
