The much anticipated Supreme Court ruling in Bresco Electrical Services Ltd (In Liquidations) v. Michael J Lonsdale (Electrical) Ltd has finally landed and has been met by an immediate barrage of detailed legal analysis and commentary.

While fascinating, this article doesn’t seek to add to those commentaries – rather, it considers what in practice it means for a contractor who may find itself with one its subcontractors going into insolvency. What can it do to better protect is position?

What did Bresco say?

One of the big decisions to come out of 2020 was the Supreme Court’s judgment in Bresco Electrical Services Ltd v. Michael J Lonsdale (Electrical) Ltd [2020] UKSC 25 in which it was held an insolvent party can adjudicate a dispute.

However, the Supreme Court went on to say that an adjudicator’s decision obtained by an insolvent party may not be enforced because of the insolvency: that was something the Technology and Construction Court has to decide on a case by case basis in enforcement proceedings.

So what happened next?

In January this year, construction giant Carillion entered into liquidation. In a sense its demise was sudden – the firm entered straight into liquidation rather than the more familiar administration procedure, meaning it had no meaningful assets that gave any prospect of the business, or any part of it, continuing as a going concern. But in another sense it was expected: a large failure of this type had been expected by industry watchers for some time.