Gibson (Banbridge) Ltd v Fermanagh District Council
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Weatherup J |
| Judgment Date | 2013 |
| Neutral Citation | [2013] NIQB 16 |
| Date | 04 February 2013 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
1
Neutral Citation No. [2013] NIQB 16
Ref:
WEA8738
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down Delivered:
04/02/2013
(subject to editorial corrections)*
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
________
QUEENS BENCH DIVISION (COMMERCIAL)
---------
BETWEEN:
GIBSON (BANBRIDGE) LIMITED
Plaintiff
-v-
FERMANAGH DISTRICT COUNCIL
Defendant
________
WEATHERUP J
[1] This is an application under Order 14 of the Rules of the Court of Judicature
for summary judgment in relation to an Adjudicator’s decision of 27 October 2012
whereby the Adjudicator awarded the plaintiff contractor the sum of £3,034,149.85.
Mr Simpson QC appeared for the plaintiff and Mr Humphries QC for the defendant.
[2] There are limited grounds on which a defendant can resist an application for
summary judgment of an Adjudicator’s decision. The statutory scheme was
introduced by the Construction Contracts (NI) Order 1997 and was designed to
produce a speedy and interim decision on a construction dispute and to facilitate the
payment of any amount found due pending a final determination of the dispute,
whether by agreement or by arbitration or by litigation. The courts have adopted a
robust approach in seeking to give effect to that statutory intention.
[3] In the present case the defendant seeks to resist judgment on two grounds.
The first ground is that the Adjudicator did not have jurisdiction as a “dispute” had
not crystallised at the date the Notice of Adjudication was issued by the plaintiff.
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4 cases
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AMD Environmental Ltd v Cumberland Construction Company Ltd
...decision. I respectfully agree with the similar conclusion reached by Weatherup J in Gibson (Banbridge) Ltd v Fermanagh District Council [2013] NIQB 16. 17 Thirdly, I reject the contention advanced by Mr Davis, that this was not an ordinary case, so that the principles outlined in paragraph......
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St Austell Printing Company Ltd v Dawnus Construction Holdings Ltd
...of the suggestions in the letter of 19 December 2013. It was also the suggestion in a recent case in Northern Ireland, Gibson (Banbridge) Ltd v Fermanagh District Council [2013] NIQB 16. There, Weatherup J said that it was clear that the claim should have been assessed long before it eventu......
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Fermanagh District Council and Gibson (Banbridge) Ltd
...period expires.” [7] Weatherup J accepted the adjudicator’s conclusion that there was a dispute. At paragraph [20] of his judgment at [2013] NIQB 16 he stated:- “[20] Initially there was a long delay after the application for payment was made. Then the matter moved to the inspection phase. ......
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Fermanagh District Council v Gibson (Banbridge) Limited
...of the matter. [3] The background appears in the decision of 4 February 2013 in Gibson (Banbridge) Ltd v Fermanagh District Council [2013] NIQB 16. Gibson was the contractor and Fermanagh the employer in a contract of March 2005 for the construction of a waste management facility. The form ......