Adjudication and Tomlin orders

Dawnvale Cafe Components Ltd v Hylgar Properties Ltd [2024] EWHC 1199 (TCC)

In Dawnvale Cafe Components Ltd v Hylgar Properties Ltd [2024] EWHC 1199 (TCC) Neil Moody KC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, held that the claimant was not entitled to a declaration that the defendant was prevented by the terms of a Tomlin order from pursuing a subsequent adjudication against the claimant. The claim brought by the defendant was held, as a matter of construction, not to fall within the scope of the Tomlin order because it did not arise from, nor was it connected with, the "proceedings" which had been settled by virtue of the Order. When considering the scope of a Tomlin order, it is therefore vital to ascertain the "proceedings" which fall within the scope of the Order. Nor was the dispute which the defendant proposed to refer to adjudication the same or substantially the same as the dispute between the parties which had been the subject of a prior decision by an adjudicator.