Welcome to the fourth of our RED Alerts of 2023.

Also featuring in this month's update:

• No entry to residential development through the back door
• How time (limits) have changed!
• Alarm bells for landlords! The cost of a waking watch not recoverable

Walton v Pickerings Solicitors and another [2023] EWCA Civ 602

Summary

The Court has no power to backdate the claim form and must seal it with the date on which it is actually issued. There is a distinction between the issue date and the date that the claim form is received by the Court office; the latter being relevant for the purposes of limitation.

The facts

Mr Walton, representing himself, attended the Court office on 20 July 2020 and paid a fee of £10,000 to issue a claim. Due to an administrative error by the Court, the sealed claim form was only returned to Mr Walton on 7 December 2020, having been sealed between 30 November and 7 December 2020. Critically, the Court had backdated the issue date on the claim form to 20 July 2020.

Mr Walton served the sealed claim form shortly after receiving it from the Court. However, Civil Procedure Rule 7.5 requires a claim form to be served within four months from the date of issue. The result was that Mr Walton's claim form had not been validly served as the four month period from issue had already elapsed by the time he received the sealed claim form from the Court. Accordingly, the Defendants argued that the claim should be struck out.

In response, Mr Walton applied for a retrospective extension of time for service of the claim form which was refused by both a Deputy Master and on appeal by the High Court. Mr Walton appealed the High Court's decision and it was considered by the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal decision

The Court of Appeal ultimately found in favour of the Mr Walton and held that the Court has no power to retrospectively date a claim form. In these circumstances, the issue date was held to be treated as 1 December 2020 (the presumed date the claim form was actually sealed).

The result of this was that Mr Walton's claim had been validly served within four months of issue. The claim was not statute-barred due to Practice Direction 7A paragraph 6.1, which states:

"Proceedings are started when the court issues a claim form at the request of the claimant (see rule 7.2) but where the claim form as issued was received in the court office on a date earlier than the date on which it was issued by the court, the claim is “brought” for the purposes of the Limitation Act 1980 and any other relevant statute on that earlier date".

Paragraphs 6.2 to 6.4 of Practice Direction 7A give the following further guidance:

"6.2 The date on which the claim form was received by the court will be recorded by a date stamp either on the claim form held on the court file or on the letter that accompanied the claim form when it was received by the court.

6.3 An enquiry about the date on which the claim form was received by the court should be directed to a court officer.

6.4 Parties proposing to start a claim which is approaching the expiry of the limitation period should recognise the potential importance of establishing the date the claim form was received by the court and should themselves make arrangements to record the date".

Our comment

Whilst this decision shines a light on the limited resources available to the Court and the consequences this is having on Court users, it also provides helpful clarification that under no circumstances should the Court be backdating the issue date on a claim form.

As the issue date can be distinguished from the date that a claim needs to be brought for limitation purposes, we recommend that careful records are kept evidencing when claims have been received by the Court office eg recorded/special delivery or delivery in person.

Given the procedural requirements surrounding bringing a claim, legal advice should be sought to avoid costly and timely delays to progressing your claim.