It would be a waste of court time and the parties’ money to allow a debtor, who had already failed on his application to set aside a statutory demand, to advance the same arguments by way of challenge to the petition debt on the hearing of the petition: ‘However, in general, it seems to me right in principle and in the public interest that, if a party has raised an argument in a proper forum, where it has been considered in connection with a particular process, in this case a bankruptcy or a prospective bankruptcy, and from which forum he had a right of appeal if he wished to exercise it, if that argument is rejected and he does not appeal, it requires exceptional circumstances before he can raise the same argument at a later stage during the same process.’ and ‘It seems that the principle enshrined in the passage in the judgment of Vinelott J, [in Brillouet v Hachette Magazines Ltd [1996] BPIR 518] approved by Chadwick LJ, and indeed his own judgment in Turner v Royal Bank of Scotland [2000] BPIR 683, indicates that the principle should not be abrogated simply because the party has found a better way of putting the same point, or wants to put in more evidence to support the same point. If there were evidence from Mr Atherton as to specific facts which really make a difference, and which he was unable to put forward on 11 March 1999 through no fault of his own (eg because it was then unavailable or unknown to him at that hearing) different considerations might apply. However, to my mind there is nothing in the subsequent evidence which justifies my going against the normal rule as laid down in Turner.’
Judges:
Neuberger LJ
Citations:
[2001] EWCA Civ 1844
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Brillouet v Hachette Magazines Ltd 1996
A party should not be allowed to put an argument again which had been lost at an earlier stage merely because he felt he had found a better way of putting the argument. . .
Cited – Turner v Royal Bank of Scotland CA 2000
The court was asked whether a debtor could pursue at the hearing of the bankruptcy petition a challenge to the petition debt on grounds which had already failed on an earlier application to set aside the statutory demand. . .
Cited by:
Cited – Coulter v Chief Constable of Dorset Police CA 13-Jul-2005
An appeal was made against an order refusing to set aside a second statutory demand. The demand was to enforce payment of an order for costs made in proceedings between the parties. The first statutory demand had been upheld, and the judge found . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Insolvency
Updated: 27 June 2022; Ref: scu.218493