Piastrino v Seascape Constructions Pty Ltd 2022 VSC 202

Piastrino v Seascape Constructions Pty Ltd [2022] VSC 202

FACTS

The case of Piastrino v Seascape Constructions Pty Ltd [2022] VSC 202 concerned a jurisdictional challenge to an adjudication application to a construction dispute. The construction dispute involved a mixed-use development, which the first defendant (Seascape) constructed for the plaintiff (Piastrino) pursuant to a contract made in or about October 2017.

In or about 2021, the respondent sought and obtained an adjudication determination pursuant to s23 of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic) (SOP Act).

The plaintiffs brought an action (the current matter) seeking an order of certiorari against the adjudication determination, on the basis that the adjudicator would not have jurisdiction to decide the dispute as the exception pursuant to the section 7(2)(b) SOP Act exception as below should apply:

“a construction contract which is a domestic building contract within the meaning of the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 between a builder and a building owner …, for the carrying out of domestic building work… other than a contract where the building owner is in the business of building residences and the contract is entered into in the course of, or in connection with, that business”

ISSUE

1. Whether the section 7(2)(b) of the SOP Act exception would apply to a mixed-use development?
2. Whether the Owners were constructing the building as a part of a business per section 7(2)(b) of the SOP act?

FINDING