With reference to Downer EDI Works Pty Ltd v Steensma [2022] WASC 396
During any Adjudication, a set-off issued before a payment claim shall
not form part of a payment dispute unless either it’s the subject of the
payment claim or it is stated in the rejection response of the payment claim.
This was held in the Downer EDI Works Pty Ltd v Steensma [2022] WASC 396
case heard by the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
During the adjudication hearing, the adjudicator rejected Downer’s
set-off claim, even though it neither formed part of the payment claim
subjected to the adjudication nor was stated in their rejection of Steensma’s
payment claim.
The Supreme Court decided the case in favour of Downer and held that the
adjudicator did not have jurisdiction to determine Downer’s set-off claim and
had fallen into jurisdictional error by doing so.
I trust that a similar principle will apply to other dispute resolution
methods like arbitration. Arbitrators shall resolve only the dispute referred
to them.
Adjudication - Adjudication is a contractual and statutory means of
dispute resolution used largely in the construction industry in countries like
Australia and the UK.
Image - https://image.slideserve.com/562333/psychosocial-hazards-n.jpg
#adjudication #aact #qsonline #constructioncaselaw #contractlaw
#variations #softskills
Note: The article was also published on www.aact.lk
