SHAYLOR GROUP LTD (IN ADMINISTRATION) v VALESCURE PROPERTY LTD (IN LIQUIDATION)

[2024] EWHC 750 (TCC), Technology and Construction Court, Kerr J, 4 April 2024

Adjudication – Declaration that adjudicator had erred in interpretation of contract – Exercise of discretion in relation to making of declaration

The claimant brought a Part 8 claim in which it sought declarations that an adjudicator had erred in his decision in calculating the amount due from the defendant to the claimant on the termination of a contract to build 157 apartments in Birmingham. The error was said to have arisen from the adjudicator's mistaken construction of the contract so that, instead of concluding that £20,277,563.57 was the amount due to the claimant, he concluded that only £9,369,927 was due. The defendant went into liquidation on 21 December 2022 and did not have the funds to defend the claim. The claimant wished, notwithstanding the defendant's lack of funds, to prove the debt owed to it in the liquidation.