Sisk wins £10m judgment against Spanish company Duro

John Sisk & Son, the Dublin-headquartered building company, has been awarded judgment of more than £10 million (€12.9m) by the UK High Court against Duro Felguera, a Spanish company that specialises in building power plants.

Duro hired Sisk to carry out engineering works at an unnamed gas power plant in the UK. Both sides subsequently fell out over what the bill due for the works was supposed to be under the contract.

Part of the dispute concerned the valuation Sisk was entitled to charge for reinforced concrete it supplied to the power plant.

Adjudicator

The dispute was referred to a contractual adjudicator last year, who found that the total amount that should have been paid to Sisk was £36 million and ordered Duro to pay it a disputed £10 million.

The Spanish company disagreed with the adjudicator’s October decision and Sisk went to the High Court to enforce it.

Duro argued the adjudicator approached certain aspects of the case “with a closed mind” and it also complained the he had delegated some functions to a consultant without its agreement.

The High Court judge, however, said Duro had “come nowhere near persuading” him that any of the adjudicator’s decision-making had been delegated.

He said that the Spanish company’s case had “failed on every ground” and he awarded Sisk summary judgment for the £10 million, plus interest, which is yet to be worked out between the parties.

The power plant at the centre of the dispute is not identified in the court judgment.

Both Duro and Sisk have been awarded contracts in relation to the ESB’s new power plant at Carrington, outside Manchester.

Sisk’s website also lists its previous power station contracts as including concrete works at the £1 billion RWE power plant at Pembroke in Wales.