Entexol Ltd v Sked Construction Ltd

The decision here concerned a dispute between a contractor and subcontractor for works to Scottish Power Energy Networks. The subcontractor, Sked, claimed that an adjudicator’s decision in the sum £114k should not be enforced because it was made in breach of the requirements of natural justice. Sked said that the adjudicator’s conclusion that “time was at large” did not reflect the submissions that had been made by the parties. During the adjudication neither party had submitted that time was at large and that in reaching a decision that this was the position, the adjudicator was on a “frolic of his own”.

Lord Lake disagreed. Although the adjudicator did refer in his decision to time being at large, this was a consequence of his decision on the matters put before him rather than the reason for that decision. The adjudicator had been asked to decide whether Sked had established an entitlement to a contra charge against Entexol’s application for payment on the basis that the works were