In June of this year (2018) the sixth Technology and Construction Court judgment in respect of an on-going dispute between Imperial Chemical Industries Limited ("ICI") and Merit Merrell Technology Limited ("MMT") was published.
Paragraph 428 of that very long judgment (the very last paragraph of the judgment) makes interesting reading.
That paragraph said ‘… This litigation also stands as something of an advertisement for adjudication. The amount of the MMT account for the works, finally determined (in court) after the expenditure of legal and experts’ fees measured in millions of pounds, is barely 1% more than the amount awarded to MMT in the adjudications. The issue of who repudiated the contract was resolved in the litigation in the liability judgment with the same result as that given by the Adjudicator in the 3rd adjudication.’
It is clear from the above, that it would have been much quicker and much less expensive if ICI and MMT had simply relied upon the adjudication process rather than on the litigation process; and from our experience that is the position in respect of most claims that we see.
Peter Barnes
Blue Sky ADR
August 2018
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