Galliford Try has been ordered to pay almost £2.5m to a client following a dispute over refurbishment works at a shopping centre in Birmingham.
The contractor must pay Mailbox £2.48m after it claimed for delays and liquidated damages. The High Court ruling enforced an earlier adjudication in favour of Mailbox that Galliford Try had contested on several counts.
In December 2013 Galliford Try had won the £19m contract to revamp the Mailbox shopping centre in central Birmingham. The work included building a new roof, larger public areas and improvements to the surrounding infrastructure.
The contractor completed the majority of works by the agreed deadline of 1 March 2016. However, disputes then arose and Mailbox began adjudication proceedings, claiming for liquidated damages due to delays.
Last November, adjudicator Peter Curtis ordered Galliford Try to pay the sum of £2.48m to Mailbox, along with £22,000 in adjudication fees.
Galliford Try claimed the decision was made without the court having all the relevant material before it came to a conclusion.
It also said Mailbox was not entitled to begin an adjudication process due to it assigning its rights and benefits under the contract to a third party.
Last week the High Court judged that the adjudicator’s decision was correct and upheld his decision to make Galliford Try pay Mailbox the damages.
