J&B Hopkins Ltd (JBH) was the main M&E contractor on the Moulsecoomb University Project in Brighton. It subcontracted part of its works to A&V Building Solutions Ltd (AVB) in December 2019. The price was £368,000. By the time they got to interim valuation #14, they had fallen out.

That valuation notice claimed £601,000 gross, with net due £211,773. Dear me, no, said JBH. A pay less notice was pinged back; it said zero payable and, worse, claimed AVB had been overpaid by £69,000. AVB called for the adjudicator on 17 November 2021 and so began a long march to the High Court, then to the Court of Appeal. In the appeal judgment – dated 27 January – the senior Court of Appeal judge, Lord Justice Coulson, seems a fraction niggled.

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