The Defendant contractor engaged the Claimant, a firm of civil and structural engineers, and a dispute arose as to the Claimant's entitlement to be paid for their services. The matter was referred to adjudication and the adjudicator found in favour of the Claimant. When the Defendant failed to pay, the Claimant applied for summary judgment under CPR Part 24.

The Defendant argued that the Claimant's fees had not been agreed and accordingly there was no contract in writing for the purposes of s.107 of the HGCRA. Therefore, the statutory scheme for adjudication could not be implied into the contract. The Clamant relied on s.15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 in that a reasonable charge would be paid for the services, and as such the requirements of s.107 had been complied with.

Judge Wilcox held that:

"Whilst there might be circumstances in which a term might be implied under s.15 of the 1982 Act as to the payment of a reasonable charge for services provided, those circumstances did not arise in cases such as the present where it was sought to rely on the statutory adjudication scheme being implied into the contract, rather than adjudication provisions in the contract itself."

In this case, there was no written evidence as to any agreed scope of works or charges so as to render the contract compliant with s.107. Accordingly, it followed that it was arguable that the adjudicator did not have jurisdiction. Summary judgment was therefore not granted and the Claimant was given leave to defend.