Sion v Hampstead Health Authority
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 27 May 1994 |
| Date | 27 May 1994 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Staughton, Lord Justice Waite and Lord Justice Peter Gibson
Limitation of actions - statement of claim - amendment after expiry period
A statement of claim could be amended with the leave of the court pursuant to Order 20, rule 5(5) of the Rules of the Supreme Court after the limitation period had expired, in order to add or substitute a new cause of action arising out of the same facts as those which were already pleaded but which disclosed no sustainable cause of action.
The Court of Appeal so held in a reserved judgment, dismissing an appeal by the plaintiff, Lionel Sion, against the striking out by Mr Justice Brooke on December 18, 1992 of his claim against the Hampstead Health Authority for damages for personal injury.
Mr Justice Brooke had refused the plaintiff's application to amend his statement of claim on the ground that the amendment was doomed to failure and his claim was struck out as disclosing no reasonable cause of action.
Mr Daniel Brennan, QC and Mr Iain Goldrein for the plaintiff; Mr Adrian Whitfield, QC and Mr Adrian Hopkins for the defendants.
LORD JUSTICE STAUGHTON said that a subsidiary point of law had to be considered before embarking on the main issue. At the hearing before Mr Justice Brooke the plaintiff's advisers had sought to amend their statement of claim. That had been resisted on the ground that the amendment would introduce a new cause of action after the relevant period of limitation had expired.
The plaintiff had relied on Order 20, rule 5(5), which provided that such an amendment might be allowed "if the new cause of action arises out of the same facts or substantially the same facts as a cause of action in respect of which relief has already been claimed in the action by the party applying for leave to make the amendment".
The defendants' rejoinder was that the amendment was only necessary if the original statement of claim disclosed no cause of action and in that event the condition imposed by rule 5(5) was not fulfilled.
One had to admire the ingenuity of that argument but it could not be right. If a statement of claim failed to disclose a cause of action, but by some amendment could be made to do so on the same facts or substantially the same facts as those already pleaded, his Lordship could not believe that the Rule Committee had intended that, if the limitation period had...
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