Queen on the application of Hanuman v University of East Anglia
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice Kenneth Parker |
| Judgment Date | 18 May 2015 |
| Neutral Citation | [2015] EWHC 4122 (Admin) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Docket Number | >CO/3442/2009 |
| Date | 18 May 2015 |
[2015] EWHC 4122 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London WC2A 2LL
Mr Justice Kenneth Parker
>CO/3442/2009
CO/15250/2009
The Claimant was not represented, did not attend
Miss Rose Grogan (instructed by Mills & Reeve) appeared on behalf of the Defendants
This is an application for a final charging order. The application is brought by the University of East Anglia and the respondent is Mr Lalu Hanuman. An interim charging order was made by Master Gidden on 9 February 2015 in favour of the University against Mr Hanuman in respect of Flat 82, Northfield House, Peckham Park Road, London SE15 6TM (that is the relevant property). The charging order was in the sum of £9,812.28, including any further interest becoming due, and the costs of the application. Mr Hanuman is the leasehold owner of the property. The defendant university now applies for a final charging order in the sum of £10,122.98, being the previous sum referred to, plus interest to today 18 May 2015. The defendant university also applies for fixed costs and reasonable disbursements in the sum of £250, breaking down in relation to court fees of £100, Land Registry fees of £40 and fixed costs of £110.
The background to the claim is that Mr Hanuman is a former student of the defendant university. Over a number of years he pursued various complaints and legal action against the defendant. As a result of this series of legal proceedings, the defendant was owed some £89,000 by Mr Hanuman arising from various costs orders which were secured by final charging orders against the property. At a hearing on 6 November 2013 the court dismissed Mr Hanuman's applications to re-open two judicial review cases and made an extended Civil Restraint Order against him. On 20 August 2014 the court refused the claimant's application to set aside, vary or stay the judgment debt of £9,812.28 arising out of those two judicial review claims and the claimant was ordered to pay the defendant's costs of those claims. Those costs have not been paid.
I believe it would be helpful for the record to set out a little bit more detail of the judicial review proceedings. On 6 November 2013 Mr Philip Mott QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, dismissed applications by the claimant in relation to certain cases that he asked to be re-opened. These were judicial review claims in which permission had been refused both on the papers and following a renewed permission hearing. The cases were closed having been determined by the court in January and June 2010 respectively. In addition, the judge imposed an extended Civil Restraint Order against the claimant for a period of two years and ordered the claimant pay the costs of the university summarily assessed in the sum of £3,597.
The claimant was not present at the hearing before Mr Philip Mott QC, but he subsequently re-applied for the cases to be re-opened and also applied for the Civil Restraint Order to be set aside on the grounds that it was made in his absence. His applications were heard by Mr Justice Lewis on 20 August 2014 when they were dismissed and each certified as totally without merit. Again, the claimant was ordered to pay the costs of the university summarily assessed in the sum of £5,832.
That was not the end of the matter because there were further applications. There was an application on 5 September 2014 when Mr Hanuman applied for permission to appeal against the Civil Restraint Order. That came before Mrs Justice Andrews on 24 September 2014 when the application for permission to appeal was refused on the papers.
Mr Hanuman has asked that this hearing today be adjourned. He says that he is in Barbados and unable to attend. This question of adjournment was raised in March before Master Gidden. He made an order at that time refusing to adjourn today's application on the basis that there was plenty of time, namely a period of at least nine weeks, in which the claimant could make arrangements to attend this hearing. No substantive response was received to that order. There was no formal application to have it reviewed or to seek to appeal against that order.
However, very recently, Mr Hanuman has in correspondence raised the question of adjournment again very belatedly shortly before this hearing. But in my judgment this matter has now been outstanding for a very considerable time. Mr Hanuman took no action expeditiously to raise the question of adjournment when Master Gidden gave his order. In my judgment the Master was absolutely correct to make the order that he did. I endorse the reasons that he then gave, namely that there was ample opportunity for Mr Hanuman to arrange to attend this hearing. I should stress that it is in the interests of justice to secure fairness to both parties in this matter that the issue of the charging order should be definitively resolved having regard to the substantial passage of time that these proceedings have taken in order that they be brought to the present point.
There is at the outset a procedural issue relating to service. Mr Hanuman was served with a copy of the interim charging order on 26 February 2015. However there was an oversight by those representing the university, namely that the application supporting documents were not served at the same time as the interim charging order although...
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British American Insurance Company Ltd (in Judicial Management) v Daniel Nunez
...must be supported by evidence and may be made without notice (rr6.15 (3) and 6.28 (2)). In R (Hanuman) v University of East Anglia [2015] EWHC 4122 (Admin), the Court retrospectively ordered service by an alternative methods under rr.6.27 and 6.15 as the debtor had tried to made service di......