Court of Appeal Success for Aldridge Brownlee Clients

Article date: 13.04.11

Aldridge Brownlee Solicitors LLP acted for the successful Respondents in a case in the Court of Appeal which has been widely reported in the legal press. On the 9th March 2011 the Court of Appeal gave judgement for our clients and in the process laid down guidelines for appeals in circumstances where the Appellant fails to turn up to trial.

If a claim is pursued to trial and on the day of the final hearing the Defendant does not turn up at Court, the judge will usually hear the case and give judgment for the Claimant. There are two different ways in which a Defendant can challenge such a judgment. In this case the Defendant used both ways at the same time.

The first way is to apply to have the judgment set aside on the grounds that it was made in his absence. However the Defendant must show that he has acted promptly, has a good reason for not attending the trial and has a reasonable prospect of success.

The second way is to appeal against the judgment itself on the ground that it was wrongly made.Such an appeal must generally be made within 21 days of the judgment, but the time can be extended.

In this case the Defendant applied to set aside the judgment because it was made in her absence.Her application was dismissed because she did not act promptly and did not have a good reason for non-attendance at trial.

She appealed against the dismissal of that application and at the same time applied for permission to appeal the judgment itself on the basis that it was wrongly made.The two appeals were heard together by the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal and her application for permission to appeal the judgment and in doing so they set out six guidelines as to how a Defendant should normally proceed in trying to set aside a judgment which has been made in her absence.

As a result of the decision it is likely that in most cases the correct way to proceed will usually be to apply to have the judgment set aside. An application for permission to appeal the underlying judgment is, now only likely to succeed on the rare occasions where the judgment being appealed was wrongly made on the basis of the uncontested evidence before the trial judge; and an application to set aside the judgment cannot succeed because the Defendant is unable to satisfy the requirements of promptness and/or of having a good reason for not attending trial.