Trading Names And Adjudication Referrals – Can A Jurisdictional Challenge Succeed?

An interesting challenge of jurisdiction case was recently heard in the Technology and Construction Court concerning an Adjudication brought against the trading name of the responding party.

In MG Scaffolding (Oxford) Ltd v Palmloch Ltd [2019] EWHC 1787 (TCC), the Defendant argued that the Notice of Adjudication incorrectly named the responding party and so was invalid - therefore, the Adjudicator lacked jurisdiction to make a decision.

In short, the Court disagreed holding that the use of a trading name was sufficient provided that the reasonable recipient could understand that this was a reference to the correct legal entity.

Background

A quotation for scaffolding was provided in 2017 by Mr Binfield of Craven Scaffolding Ltd at the request of Mr Lewin. Mr Lewin's email address ended in @mcrproperty.com and the postal address to which the quotation was sent was "MCR Property Group, Universal Square, Manchester".