The Court of Appeal has given new guidance on the powers of county courts to extend time limits for the service of applications for new tenancies when an oversight on the part of the court leads to the applications being served out of time.
The Appeal Court has backed Guildford County Court’s decision to extend the time limits in the case of the tenants of property at Brinscombe Crescent, Godalming, whose leases expired in September 2001. Landlord Bridgegrove Ltd gave notice terminating the tenancies under section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
The tenants’ solicitor instructed Guildford County Court to issue and serve the appropriate claim forms in respect of their application for a new tenancy. However, due to an oversight, the court neglected to serve the forms. The time limit expired on 15 April 2001.
In August 2001, the tenants were informed that the leases would terminate as of 28 September, and that Bridgegrove required vacant possession.
In January 2002, Judge Hull QC, sitting at Guildford Crown Court, used his discretion to extend the time limits to allow the tenants to serve their application on Bridgegrove, but the landlord sought to overturn that decision in the Court of Appeal.
The appeal centred upon the construction of CPR 7.6(3)(a), which held that the court could make an order to extend time for service if it had been “unable” to serve the claim form.
Bridgegrove claimed that the term “unable” should not be construed to include circumstances in which the court had made no attempt at service, be that because of incompetence or oversight, and should be confined to circumstances in which some attempt at service had been made, albeit unsuccessfully.
Dismissing the appeal, Dyson LJ said that he could see “no basis upon which the exercise of the discretion could be challenged”.
He held that there could be no sensible reason why the court should have power to extend time when it had tried unsuccessfully to serve a notice, but not have such power when the failure to serve resulted from an oversight.
Cranfield and another v Bridgegrove Ltd Court of Appeal (Ward, Waller and Dyson LJJ) 14 May 2003.
References: PLS News 15/04/03
