A claim is “brought” for the purposes of the Limitation Act 1980 on the date when the claim form is received by the court office but proceedings are issued and time starts to run for service of the claim form from the date it is issued by the court. There is no power to backdate the date of issue.
In Eric Walton v Pickerings Solicitors and another [2023] EWHC 2073 (Civ) the Court of Appeal has considered when a claim form is issued and the significance of the date of issue.
The appellant claimed the benefit of an agreement concerning a joint venture to develop land at Kings Heath, Birmingham.
He claimed that the defendant solicitors were in breach of an undertaking to him and sought damages representing lost profits on the joint venture.
The appellant attended the court office at the Royal Courts of Justice on 20 July 2020 and paid an issue fee of £10,000 for the issue of a claim form relating to his claim.
He did not receive the sealed claim form from the court until 7 December 2020 and it was backdated and sealed with the date of 20 July 2020.
He served it within a matter of days but since it was only valid for service for four months from the date of issue it was already out of date.
An application for a retrospective extension of time for service was refused by a deputy master and an appeal to a deputy judge also failed.
The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and declared that the claim form was served in time.
CPR 7.2 provides that proceedings are not started until the court issues the claim form.
By sealing the claim form the court indicates that it has been issued. The court is required to enter the true date when the claim form is sealed and issued rather than a false date.
On the facts this should have been a date between 30 November and 7 December 2020.
Practice Direction 7A para 6.1 provides that proceedings are started when the court issues a claim form at the request of the claimant but where the claim form as issued was received by the court on an earlier date, the claim is “brought” for the purposes of the Limitation Act 1980 on that earlier date.
The primary function of the date of issue is to mark the beginning of the period for service of the claim form.
Louise Clark is a property law consultant and mediator