Fitzroy were architects who were commissioned in connection with a scheme involving the former In & Out Club on Piccadilly, and surrounding buildings, and Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, formerly the home of the Rothschild family. Mentmore, Good Start and Anglo Swiss ("MGA") were the owners of the various buildings involved in the scheme.

Fitzroy were claiming for non-payment of fees against MGA and, early on in the proceedings, applied for summary judgement of the amounts claimed.

Fitzroy claimed that because MGA had not submitted relevant withholding notices, Fitzroy were entitled to the contractual instalments, and they should be paid unless and until the court decided other sums were due.

However the Judge declined to give judgement for the sums Fitzroy had applied for. In all the circumstances, and bearing in mind that this was not an adjudication enforcement hearing, it would be a false decision to award Fitzroy the sums claimed on a contractual basis, if, on a factual basis, the court found, as it did, that the sums claimed were not necessarily the sums owed.

The Judge decided that the right course would be to award interest to Fitzroy for late payment, if the parties later determined that amounts were owed to Fitzroy.