Tesseract International Pty Ltd v. Pascale Construction Pty Ltd

Lower Court Judgment

21/10/2022 Supreme Court of South Australia (Livesey P, Doyle & Bleby JJA)

[2022] SASCA 107

Catchwords

Arbitration – Arbitral proceedings – Powers and duties of arbitrator – Where respondent subcontracted with applicant – Where applicant agreed to provide engineering consultancy services to respondent in relation to design and construction of warehouse – Where, under contract, if dispute between applicant and respondent arose, dispute could be submitted to arbitration – Where dispute arose where respondent alleged applicant breached various terms of contract, breached duty of care in negligence and involved in misleading or deceptive conduct in contravention of s 18 of Australian Consumer Law – Where applicant denied allegations, but pleaded in alternative that any damages payable should be reduced by reason of proportionate liability provisions under Part 3 of Law Reform (Contributory Negligence and Apportionment of Liability) Act 2001 (SA) and Part VIA of Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (collectively "proportionate liability regimes") – Whether proportionate liability regimes amenable to arbitration – Whether s 28 of Commercial Arbitration Act 2011 (SA) empowers arbitrator to apply proportionate liability regimes, or whether terms of legislation preclude arbitrator from doing so – Whether implied power conferred on arbitrator to determine parties' dispute empowers arbitrator to apply proportionate liability regimes, or whether terms of legislation preclude arbitrator from doing so.