With great respect to Tony Bingham in his commentary on Geris vs CNIM (10 June, page 52), an adjudicator has no authority under the Scheme for Construction Contracts or any set of adjudication rules that I can think of, to make orders.

All he can do is make a decision as to the rights and duties of the parties under the contract in question. What then happens is a matter of contract.

The adjudicator in the case was perfectly correct in making no order for payment since any such order would have been outside his jurisdiction. All he could do was say what money was due from one party to the other and what the rights of CNIM were as to set-off, which is what he did. It appears from Tony’s commentary, therefore, that it would have been of no use for the parties to ask him what he meant; he had already said all he could say.

John Sims, Common Farm, Leiston, Suffolk

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