Coventry & Warwickshire Development Partnership LLP v Avison Young (UK) Limited

Facts

The claimant, Coventry & Warwickshire Development Partnership LLP, engaged the defendant, Avison Young (UK) Limited, from January 2020 to January 2023 to act as NEC project manager and NEC supervisor on its development works at Gateway South in Coventry — an industrial and logistics park on a 215-acre former sewage treatment site requiring reclamation and remediation earthworks. Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd was engaged to excavate, treat and position some 5,000,000 m³ of material to form a bund, and made monthly applications for interim payment assessed by reference to the Price for Work Done to Date. The claimant contended that the defendant had negligently over-certified the sums due, accepting Buckingham's reduced baseline volumes and claimed progress without proper interrogation, relying on excavation rather than placement data, and failing to identify defects in its role as supervisor; Buckingham's subsequent insolvency meant the overpayment could not be recouped. The claimant referred the dispute to adjudication. By his decision of 13 February 2026 the adjudicator, Franco Mastrandrea, awarded the claimant £8,729,179.33 plus interest as damages. On 16 February 2026 the defendant said it would not pay, contending that the adjudicator had answered the wrong question, given inadequate reasons and breached natural justice. The claimant commenced enforcement proceedings and sought summary judgment.