David Willink reports on a short but interesting & not unimportant point on the law of limitation
- High Court considers limitation when cause of action accrues at midnight.
In Matthew & Ors v Sedman & Ors [2017] EWHC 3527 (Ch) the High Court considered when a limitation period ended in circumstances where the cause of action had accrued on the stroke of midnight. When a cause of action accrues during the course of a day, that day is disregarded for limitation purposes and the clock is said to start ticking from the start of the following day. In this case, the cause of action accrued at midnight.
The court accordingly had to address the question ‘when a cause of action is completely constituted at the very first moment of a particular day, does that day fall to be included when calculating the applicable…limitation period or does it fall to be excluded?’ The court decided that, if it is ‘absolutely clear that the cause of action arises at the very beginning of a particular
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