‘can a defendant plead a comprehensive defence to allegations of breach (which relies on matters not expressly addressed by the particulars of claim), and raise a separate case on causation (which it says would defeat the claimant’s claim in any event), and then seek to rely upon CPR 17.4(2) to deny the claimant the opportunity of amending its claim outside the limitation period to challenge the veracity of what the defendant has said and/or pleading that, even if that separate case on causation is made out, the defendant would still be liable to the claimant? As explained below, the wider circumstances in which this issue has arisen can be traced back to the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017, so the result may be of some significance to the construction industry.’
Judges:
Lord Justice Coulson
Lord Justice Baker
And
Lady Justice Andrews
Citations:
[2022] EWCA Civ 32
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Litigation Practice
Updated: 17 July 2022; Ref: scu.671599
