Game playing should be avoided if civil litigators learn of opponents’ mistakes while trying to serve clients’ interests. Benjamin Amunwa reports.
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The High Court has held that parties to a litigation may be under a duty to correct their opponent’s mistakes or misunderstandings if doing so furthers the overriding objective.
Woodward and Addison v Phoenix Healthcare Distribution Ltd [2018] EWHC 334 (Ch) was a contractual claim worth over £5m, brought by the assignees of two insolvent companies.
The contract was made on 20 June 2011 for the purchase of a drug. The claimants alleged that Phoenix had sold them the product as a generic drug, in breach of an existing patent to Pfizer.
As the alleged breach and/or misrepresentation had occurred at the time the contract was entered into, the claim was due to be time barred on 20 June 2017. The claimants issued the claim form on the eve of limitation (19 June 2017) and the usual rule (CPR 7.5(1)) required them to serve the claim form on the defendant within four months
