Judgment
Payment Notice 34 did not provide ‘an agenda for adjudication’. It set out no basis for the gross valuation increase of £1. Contrast its Payment Notice 34a which put forward a markedly larger figure and was accompanied by detailed calculations. Payment Notice No 34 did not set out the amount which Employer actually considered to be due. It was not necessary to show the Employer was acting in bad faith but equally it could not be said the notice stated the sum that Employer genuinely considered to be due. Payment Notice 34 was invalid and ineffective. The adjudicator took too narrow a view of his jurisdiction. The question of the capping beam claim was part of the payment dispute. Had the adjudicator considered the capping beam claim and concluded that the defence did not operate to reduce the amount due, his decision would have been unimpeachable (whether founded on either the interpretation of the Contract or on arguments as to the merits or quantum of the capping beam claim). This was a “material” breach of the rules of natural justice. Apart from anything else it was worth more in claimed value that the amount actually awarded. The Decision could be safely enforced as to the value of the Interim Payment Application 34. The starting point was that whenever it was safe to do so it would and could sever the good from the bad. Adjudicator was not asked to make a series of separate decisions. He reached a single decision with findings and conclusions in support.
It would be artificial and inappropriate to stop at any particular point in a chain of reasoning. Nothing remaining could be safely enforced. The question whether Employer remained liable to pay the notified sum on Payment Application 34 and then seek return of any overpayment, was “academic” (for the purposes of the court proceedings) and not further addressed. Neither party had claimed any relief based on the invalidity of Payment Notice 34. In addition matters had moved on to payment cycle 35 which would be a proper matter for any further dispute.
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