Adjudication and "conclusive evidence" clauses

Battersea Project Phase 2 Development Company Ltd v QFS Scaffolding Ltd [2024] EWHC 591 (TCC)

In Battersea Project Phase 2 Development Company Ltd v QFS Scaffolding Ltd [2024] EWHC 591 (TCC), Mr Alexander Nissen KC, sitting as a Judge of the High Court, held, as a matter of interpretation of the contract between the parties, that the fact that an adjudication had become a nullity as a result of a failure to comply with the contractually agreed timetable did not mean that there had been a "conclusion" to the adjudication proceedings between the parties. A "conclusion" required either a decision, award or judgment or a settlement. On the facts, the conclusion of the adjudication was held to have taken place when the adjudicator reached his decision. This had the consequence that the Final Payment Notice, which in other circumstances was agreed to be "conclusive" of the amount to be paid, had to be read subject to the decision of the adjudicator so that the decision of the adjudicator was enforceable and it was not the case that the Final Payment Notice was conclusive of the matters set out within it.