Coronavirus stay applies under appeal also
Proper construction of Practice Direction 51Z, ‘Stay of Possession Proceedings – Coronavirus’ (‘PD 51Z’) – whether the automatic stay imposed by PD 51Z applies to appeals from possession orders that were extant when the stay began, as much as to first instance possession claims themselves.
Held: ‘the words of paragraph 2 of PD 51Z are broad . . They stay ‘all proceedings for possession brought under CPR Part 55’. We have emphasised the word ‘brought’, because it focuses on how the proceedings were initiated. As a matter of ordinary language, we think that proceedings brought under CPR Part 55 are still ‘brought under CPR Part 55’, even when they are under appeal. ‘
Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court
[2020] EWCA Civ 681, [2020] WLR(D) 321, [2020] 4 WLR 85
Bailii, WLRD
Practice Direction 51Z
England and Wales
Litigation Practice, Housing
Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.651061