Legal Blog

Adjudication

Okkin Construction Inc. v. Apostolopoulos 2022 Ont SCJ

By way of adjudication, an owner was ordered to pay substantial money to the general contractor. The owner did not wish to pay the money because the subcontractor had also liened the project and the owner was concerned that he would have to pay the same money twice, once by way of the adjudication and once by way of the subcontractor’s lien. The owner requested an order by which the money ordered to be paid to the general contractor instead be paid to a lawyer and held in escrow pending resolution of the lien actions. The judge held that he had no authority to vary the adjudicator’s order. The judge was not concerned about possible double payment because, he noted, any money paid to the general contractor was to be held by it in trust for the subcontractor under the trust provisions of the Construction Act.

Written by Jonathan Speigel, the founding partner of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP, leads the litigation and construction practices.