The Supreme Court (Lords Hodge, Burrows and Richards) has granted to permission to appeal in Abbey Healthcare v Simply Construct.
Tom Owen will be representing Abbey Healthcare in the Supreme Court, instructed by Barry Hembling, Simon Jennings and Sam Goodwill at WFW. The appeal will examine the scope of section 104 and Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 and whether collateral warranties fall within the Act.
At first instance the TCC held that the warranty in question was not a construction contract and that accordingly there was no right of adjudication under section 108 of the Act. In the Court of Appeal, the majority (Coulson and Peter Jackson LJJ) reversed the order of the TCC and held that the warranty was a construction contract with a right of adjudication. Stuart-Smith LJ dissented.
