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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> Doyle v PRA Group (UK) Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 12 (23 January 2019) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2019/12.html Cite as: [2019] WLR 3783, [2019] ECC 13, [2019] EWCA Civ 12, [2019] WLR(D) 236, [2019] 1 WLR 3783 |
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ON APPEAL FROM THE CENTRAL LONDON COUNTY COURT
HHJ Madge
B22YP133
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
LORD JUSTICE FLAUX
and
LORD JUSTICE PETER JACKSON
____________________
Christopher DOYLE |
Appellant |
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- and - |
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PRA GROUP (UK) LIMITED |
Respondent |
____________________
Richard Jones QC and Philip Mantle (instructed by Howell-Jones LLP) for the Respondent
Hearing date : 16 January 2019
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
Sir Terence Etherton MR:
Factual background
"8f Subject to us sending you any notice required or taking any steps required by law, you, or your legal representatives, must immediately pay your whole balance (including all interest and charges and fees due) and we may refuse to authorise further transactions if:
- this agreement ends;
- you fail to make a payment in full when it is due;
- you break an important part of this agreement or repeatedly break this agreement and fail to sort the matter out;
- a bankruptcy order is made against you, or you make a voluntary arrangement with your creditors; or
- you die."
CCA
"87.— Need for default notice.
(1) Service of a notice on the debtor or hirer in accordance with section 88 (a "default notice") is necessary before the creditor or owner can become entitled, by reason of any breach by the debtor or hirer of a regulated agreement,—
(a) to terminate the agreement, or
(b) to demand earlier payment of any sum, or
(c) to recover possession of any goods or land, or
(d) to treat any right conferred on the debtor or hirer by the agreement as terminated, restricted or deferred, or
(e) to enforce any security."
LA 1980
The proceedings
The judgments below
Discussion
"The date when a cause of action accrues may be said to be the date on which the plaintiff would be able to issue a statement of claim capable of stating every existing fact which, if traversed, it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove in order to support his right to judgment."
"Any expenses incurred by the local authority under this section, together with interest from the date when the demand for the expenses if served until payment, may… be recovered by them, by action or summarily as a civil debt, from the person having control of the house …"
"Sect. 37 of the Solicitors Act, 1843, appears to me to assume that there is a cause of action, and merely to postpone the bringing of an action upon it until the period of one month from the delivery of the bill. There is nothing in the section, so far as I can see, inconsistent with the view that the cause of action arises when the work is completed. It was urged that, if this construction were adopted, a solicitor would have a shorter time during which he may abstain from bringing his action for work done than the rest of Her Majesty's subjects. That may be so; but on the other hand, if the plaintiff's contention is correct, the solicitor may abstain from delivering his bill for twenty years, and then at the end of that time he may deliver it and sue after the expiration of a month from its delivery. It seems to me that that would be a very anomalous and inconvenient result."
"Thus, I conclude that the requirement to serve a demand is a procedural condition precedent to bringing proceedings. It is not part of the cause of action.
I am fortified in this view by consideration of what could result if the local authority were right. Upon their argument, the local authority could delay service of a demand indefinitely. Then, having served their demand long after the works were complete, they would have a further six years in which to take proceedings in the High Court or the County Court. In Coburn v. Colledge [1897] 1 QB 702, 709, Lopes L.J. said: …."
Conclusion
Lord Justice Peter Jackson:
Lord Justice Flaux: