The High Court can transfer proceedings wrongly started in High Court to the County Court as an alternative to its jurisdiction to strike out the claim. Stuart-Smith LJ said: ‘. . provided proceedings are started within the time permitted by the statute of limitations, are not frivolous, vexatious or an abuse of the process of the court and disclose a cause of action, they will not as a rule be struck out because of some mistake in procedure on the part of the plaintiff or his advisers. Save where there has been a contumelious disobedience of the court’s order, the draconian sanction of striking out an otherwise properly constituted action, simply to punish the party who has failed to comply with the rules of court, is not part of the court’s function . .’
Judges:
Stuart-Smith LJ
Citations:
Times 03-Dec-1993, Ind Summary 20-Dec-1993, Gazette 26-Jan-1994, [1994] 1 WLR 420
Statutes:
Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 2(1)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Birmingham City Council v Abdulla and Others CA 29-Nov-2011
The Council appealed against an order dismissing its application for the claimants’ claims under equal pay legislation to be struck out for want of jurisdiction. The claims had been brought in the High Court rather than te hEmployment Tribunal, thus . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Litigation Practice, Limitation
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.88744