Abbey sought declarations as to whether Abbey was entitled to take away the remainder of the work which PP Brickwork had agree to carry out. PP Brickwork sought to enforce an Adjudicator’s decision in its favour. As Abbey’s application would, if the declarations were granted, mean that the dispute that led to the adjudication would be resolved in Abbey’s favour and the Adjudicator’s decision would be unenforceable, Abbey’s application was heard first.

The Court refused Abbey’s application, holding that under the proper construction of the subcontract, Abbey was not entitled to reduce the quantity of the works by removing all plots upon which PP Brickwork had not yet started work. The Judge determined that a convenience or omissions clause required reasonably clear words to allow an employer to transfer work from one contractor to another. The subcontract provisions allowing the variation of the quantity of work lacked clarity to allow Abbey to behave as it did. Accordingly, Abbey were in breach of the subcontract by engaging an alternative contractor to carry out the work which had been removed from the scope of the subcontract.