Seray-Wurie v Hackney London Borough Council: CA 25 Jun 2002

The claimant had applied for and been granted its costs certificate by default. The respondent claimed it had sent its point of issue notice in time. The council now applied under the rule for the court itself to re-open the decision to allow the objections to be made. The High Court acceded to the request. The claimant was refused leave to appeal by the judge. The claimant sought appealed.
Held: The High Court, when it sat as an appeal court, did have power to re-open its own decisions in exceptional circumstances in order to avoid real injustice, following Taylor. There was no distinction in principle between the High Court and the Court of Appeal. In future, and pending any rules change, such applications should be made on paper to the high court. In this case no significant injustice could be shown.

Judges:

Lord Justice Simon Brown, Lord Justice Brooke and Lord Justice Dyson

Citations:

Times 04-Jul-2002, Gazette 30-Aug-2002, [2002] EWCA Civ 909, [2002] 3 All ER 448, [2003] 1 WLR 257

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Civil Procedure Rules 47.12

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

CitedTaylor v Lawrence CA 4-Feb-2002
A party sought to re-open a judgment on the Court of Appeal after it had been perfected. A case had been tried before a judge. One party had asked for a different judge to be appointed, after the judge disclosed that he had been a client of the firm . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Civil Procedure Rules, Costs

Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.174186