Civil Advocacy: Referring district judge to a skeleton argument and application bundle Counsel Madam I appear for the

defendant, my learned friend Miss Hegaty appears for the claimant. Madam this is the defendants application to set aside judgment in default, the judgment having been entered on the 3rd of October. Madam Ive hoped youve received with the application bundle my skeleton argument in which Ive set out briefly the points on which the defendant relies. In brief Madam as youll see at paragraph 6 and 7 of my skeleton I submit both that there is a real prospect of successfully defending this claim and that there is another good reason why it should be allowed to do so under the second part of Rule 13.3.1. Madam I only need to take a moment to refer to the facts which are set out at paragraph 2 to 4 of my skeleton. Youll see that this is a dispute between the managing agents of large office premises at Albert Dock in Liverpool, they being the claimants in this action. And the lessee of that property is Strawberry Estates Limited which is the defendant. Madam from my chronology at paragraph 2 youll see that proceedings were issued on the 31st of August following several demands by the claimant for an outstanding payment which youll see Ive referred to in my skeleton as the bonus. Madam if I can take you to paragraph 3 you will see that in short this was the familiar contractual set up where managing agents compete within the market by undertaking to achieve savings on their previous years service charge and upon succeeding they become entitled to a bonus payment. In this case Madam the target was a saving of 10% on the previous years charges and the bonus was 53,000. The claimant duly achieved a saving in excess of 10% and a letter inviting payment of the bonus was sent to the defendant. Madam I refer to that at the bottom of paragraph 3 of my skeleton and youll see the letter is flagged up in the bundle at page 24. Madam that request for payment was made on the 7th of December and suffice to say that by the 15th of January on which date this bonus became payable no part of it had been paid. And this remained the case when the present proceedings were issued. Madam youll see that at paragraph 5 of my skeleton entitled defence and it is simply this:There is a real prospect of the claim being successfully defended because an outstanding debt is also owed by the claimant to the defendant. This is an agreed repayment of service charges from the previous year and as such of course it amounts to a set off.

Civil Advocacy: Referring district judge to a skeleton argument and application bundle

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Madam youll see at paragraph 3 of my skeleton that I refer to the evidence supporting this proposition which is at page 30 of the bundle. Madam on that page youll see the witness statement of Jane Longman whos title is Office Manager at the defendants complex. There Madam if I can take you to paragraph 5 youll see that she makes reference to the installation of a fully networked computer system with WI-FI which the managing agents undertook to provide through their sub-contractor for which a substantial fee of 72,461 was somewhat unusually paid in advance. In paragraph 6 Madam she refers to some correspondence which is exhibited at page 38. Madam that letter youll see is dated the 14th of June and it contains an acknowledgment by a Mr David Tyler of managing agents who accepts that this work was not carried out to the required standard and undertakes to repay the upfront fee of 72,461 within the next week. Madam as Miss Longman explains that never happened and youll see when she signed her statements of 10 days ago that work is still not been carried out. So Madam plainly there is a real prospect of this claim being defended on that basis. If you would Madam now turn to paragraph 7 of my skeleton youll see my submission that there is another reason why the defendant should be allowed to defend a claim. In short Madam the irony is that through the feelings of the same defective computer system the defendant remained unaware of any intentional on the claimants part to issue proceedings or even that the proceedings had been electronically served on them. Could I take you first Madam to the witness statement of Katherine Gordon which youll find at page 41 of the bundle.

Civil Advocacy: Referring district judge to a skeleton argument and application bundle

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