Can final certificates ‘over-ride’ adjudication decisions made under the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act 2004?
The recent Supreme Court case of Martinek Holdings Pty Ltd v Reed Construction (Qld) Pty Ltd [2009] QSC 328 dealt with an application by a principal to a construction contract to prevent a contractor enforcing an adjudication decision made under the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act 2004 (‘the Act’). The application was made on the basis that a final certificate issued by the superintendent for the contract, after the adjudication decision was made (for a lesser sum than the amount awarded to the contractor by the adjudicator), took precedence over the adjudication decision, such that the enforcement of the decision should be permanently stayed. The application was ultimately unsuccessful, but left an interesting and important issue unanswered, and will not prevent similar applications being made in the future. In normal circumstances, unless the adjudicator has made a ‘jurisdictional’ error (ie has made a decision he or she had no power to make) or has deprived one party
