May the court enforce only part of an adjudicator's decision?
The court may sever an invalid part and enforce the remainder where the valid decision is discrete and unaffected. It will not rewrite the adjudicator's reasoning or calculate a new award that the adjudicator did not make.
Partial enforcement is available where the invalid element can be removed without altering or contaminating the remaining decision
The older view that any jurisdictional or natural-justice defect invalidated the whole decision has been displaced. The court now asks whether the offending part is identifiable, whether the remaining findings are independent, and whether enforcement can occur without re-engineering the adjudicator's work. Separate disputes may be severable, but that is not the sole test. A single dispute may contain a discrete invalid determination capable of removal. If the error affects the reasoning or calculation of the balance, the decision may be unenforceable as a whole.
| Issue | Position |
|---|---|
| Discrete invalid part | Potentially severable |
| Remainder independently reasoned | Potentially enforceable |
| Error infects calculation | Whole decision may fail |
| Court must recalculate | Severance ordinarily unavailable |
| Multiple disputes | Relevant but not essential |
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