Paragon Group Limited v FK Facades Limited [2026] EWHC 78 (TCC)

Paragon, as assignee of the employer's rights under an amended JCT Minor Works Building Contract 2016, referred a liquidated damages dispute against the contractor, FK Facades, to adjudication and obtained an award of 80,500 pounds plus the adjudicator's fees. FK resisted enforcement on a single jurisdictional ground: an assignee is not a Party to the contract, so it had no right to refer a dispute to adjudication and the adjudicator had no jurisdiction.

HHJ Stephen Davies observed that there was no direct authority on the point and decided it from first principles. A statutory assignment under section 136 of the Law of Property Act 1925 transfers not only the legal right but all legal and other remedies for it. On the objective interpretation of the contract, the references to a Party could be read as including a legal assignee of that party, so the adjudicator had jurisdiction and Paragon was entitled to summary judgment enforcing the award.

The decision is the first direct ruling that an assignee of the employer's rights may itself refer a dispute arising under the contract to adjudication. The judge noted that any party concerned by that outcome can stipulate a no-assignment clause, an assignment-with-consent clause, or an express bar on adjudication by an assignee. Absent such wording, an assignee takes the right to adjudicate with the assigned benefit.