Judgment overturned without an Appeal
We were instructed by a tenant in a commercial landlord and tenant dispute whereby the landlord (a limited company) forfeited (i.e. terminated) a lease on the grounds of alleged breach of covenant, namely the failure to pay utility bills in relation to the premises. After our client was unsuccessful at trial, our Mr Bharat Murria made an Application under a little known section of the CPR 40.2.1.1 to overturn the judgment without an appeal. CPR 40.2.1.1 is a provision for a judgment to be recalled and reconsidered before it has been finalized. Very few cases have been successful with the use of this section as most judgments would need to be appealed at the appellate court. However, in this case, we were successful and our client was awarded damages in the sum of £146,500 plus costs.
Not only were we successful to overturn the judgment, a further application was made to hold the sole Director of the Landlord liable for costs of the litigation on the basis that he was the real party to the proceedings and a litigation controller. In this Application too, we were successful, assisting our client to recover her costs of the litigation.
This was a challenging case and a wealth of evidence was required to demonstrate why the judgment at trial was incorrect and why it was imperative to look beyond the Company for the recovery of legal costs.