Information on English Civil Law
AMANDA CLARK v ARDINGTON ELECTRICAL SERVICES : JULIAN DENNARD v ROBERT PLANT : ARJUNE SEN v STEELFORM ENGINEERING CO LTD : VICTOR LAGDEN v PHILIPPA O'CONNOR : WENDY BURDIS v ERIC LIVSEY (2002) [2002] EWCA Civ 510. Test cases re car hire agreements after RTA, where agreements not shams they were enforceable.
When time runs against solicitor, Khan v R. M. Falvey & Co (a Firm) Increase in damages for bereavement from £7,500 to £10,000 April 12, 2002 The Times Law Report When time runs against solicitor COURT OF APPEAL Khan v R. M. Falvey & Co (a Firm) The limitation period started to run against a solicitor from when an action in which he was instructed might have been struck out for want of prosecution, not when it was in fact struck out. The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Schiemann, Lord Justice Chadwick and Sir Murray Stuart-Smith) so held on March 22, 2002 when allowing an appeal by the defendant, R. M. Falvey & Co, West Wimbledon, from a decision of Mr Justice Mackinnon dated April 27, 2001.
The claimant, Malik Javid Kahn, brought an action for damages for loss suffered as a consequence of the defendant's alleged professional negligence in failing to take procedural steps in actions in which it was instructed and which were subsequently struck out for want of prosecution.
SIR MURRAY STUART-SMITH said that in so far as Hopkins v Mackenzie ((1995) PIQR 43) purported to hold that there could be no damage before the actual strike-out, it was not correct or consistent with Nykredit Mortgage Bank plc v Edward Erdman Group Ltd (No 2) ((1997) 1 WLR 1627).
The claimant had not pleaded any damage prior to the strike-out, but that did not mean that he suffered no damage before that time.
If it was clear, as in this case, that the value of his chose in action, consisting of his chance of recovery in the actions which were struck out, had been substantially diminished before the limitation date, the action would be statute-barred.
