In a judgment turning on the interpretation of section 35 of the Limitation Act 1980, the Court of Appeal has upheld a decision that non-payment of a court fee did not mean that time continued to run for limitation purposes in the context of a new claim within existing proceedings.
It held that, if a new claim which was not otherwise abusive was made by amendment within the limitation period, it would not later become time-barred because a requisite court fee had not been paid.
It is also worth noting the court’s obiter consideration of whether a claim form delivered but not issued in due time is brought at the date of delivery if the correct fee has not been proffered. This is an issue which has produced a number of diverging first instance decisions. Although it was not necessary to resolve this point for the purpose of this appeal, Peter Jackson LJ expressed the “provisional view” that he saw force in the concerns voiced in a number of the cases regarding disallowing a claim on limitation grounds “merely because of an inadvertent miscalculation of a court fee”. (Butters and another v Hayes [2021] EWCA Civ 252 (25 February 2021).)
