Summary
The Court held that a contractor could not bring a fresh statutory arbitration reference for claims already decided by the Housing Commissioner under an unchallenged award. The contractor had sought arbitration, consented to the High Court’s reference and submitted its claims without raising a jurisdictional objection. The award and rejection of a later review had attained finality. While that award stood, identical claims could not be pursued anew before the State tribunal by treating the earlier proceedings as a nullity.
Issues
- Whether identical claims could be referred afresh to the State arbitration tribunal while the earlier unchallenged award remained binding.
- Whether the contractor could disregard the award as without jurisdiction after consenting to the reference and submitting its claims.
Held
- The contractor itself sought arbitration and consented to the High Court order referring the dispute to the Housing Commissioner. It submitted claims, did not challenge the resulting award and unsuccessfully sought review of the reference order. Those circumstances, and identity of the claims, bound it through issue estoppel. (¶¶ 13, 14, 15)
- The Court rejected the attempt to ignore the award as a nullity. It found no total lack of jurisdiction in the circumstances of the court-directed consent reference. The award had to be challenged before the appropriate forum and remained binding until set aside. (¶¶ 16, 18)
- No jurisdictional objection had been raised at the appropriate stage; the contractor had accepted the reference and invoked the arbitrator’s decision on its claims. Its subsequent fresh reference for the very same claims was therefore not maintainable. (¶ 19)
- The Court expressed a prima facie doubt about revision under Section 19 of the State Act against an order rejecting a reference rather than an award, but did not decide that question because it had not been raised or argued. (¶ 17)
Result
Appeals allowed. The High Court orders directing fresh adjudication were set aside, and the State arbitration tribunal’s orders rejecting the references as not maintainable were restored; no costs.