Law digests: 7 & 14 April 2023

Appeal

Owen v Black Horse Ltd [2023] EWCA Civ 325, [2023] All ER (D) 69 (Mar)

The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the appellant’s appeal which raised a question of what the phrase ‘if a claimant does not attend the hearing’ means in the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). The ground of appeal was that the judge was wrong to find that the appellant did not attend the trial for the purposes of CPR 27.9(2)(a) when, although he was not present, his legal representative was. The court therefore had no power to strike out the claim. There were four strands in the appellant’s argument: (i) he relied on the natural meaning of the words in their context; (ii) he argued that the words should have been construed consistently with CPR 39.3(1)(b); (iii) he suggested that a purposive interpretation supported his case; and (iv) CPR 27.11 did not lead to a different conclusion. The court held that a party ‘attends’ trial if they are legally represented at the hearing. A party