Every step in litigation is subject to rigorously enforced time limits and sitting on your hands when faced with a claim is simply not an option. Developers found that out to their cost when their failure to act promptly resulted in the forfeiture of their right to defend a substantial breach of contract claim.
The developers and project managers that they had engaged to assist in a proposed development had each accused the other of wrongfully repudiating the contract. The project managers launched proceedings, claiming damages and unpaid fees. The developers, however, did not serve a defence to the claim within the time permitted by the Civil Procedure Rules.
The project managers had agreed to a brief extension of the deadline, but that date also came and went without any defence being served. The developers made an eleventh-hour application to the High Court to extend the deadline but that was declined and a default judgment was entered against them. Another two months passed before the developers finally purported to serve a defence.
In refusing to set aside the default judgment, the Court noted that there had been a complete absence of explanation, let alone excuse, for the relevant delays. On the available evidence, the developers in any event had no realistic prospect of defending the claim in principle or in succeeding in any counterclaim. The amount of the project managers’ award remained to be assessed.
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