Why Do Adjudicators Keep Getting Jurisdiction Wrong? And Why Claims For Declarations Are Underrated

“... an adjudicator should think very carefully before ruling out a defence merely because there was no mention of it in the claiming party's notice of adjudication. That is only common sense: it would be absurd if the claiming party could, through some devious bit of drafting, put beyond the scope of the adjudication the defending party's otherwise legitimate defence to the claim.” (Coulson J in Pilon Limited v Breyer Group plc 2010)

It is surprising how often adjudicators go wrong by failing to heed the above words of Coulson J (as he was). Other courts have repeated the point, including the Supreme Court (Bresco Electrical Services Ltd (In Liquidation) v Michael J Lonsdale (Electrical) Ltd 2020). Yet adjudicators have frequently decided, wrongly, that they have no jurisdiction to hear a responding party's cross-claim because it was not within the scope of the notice of adjudication. Two such cases, both heard by His Honour Judge Eyre QC have recently featured in