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Hi all,
Here's the skinny:
In January at around 9pm an Iceland delivery truck drove onto my fathers property, up his 100 meter driveway and up to his front door. It was at the wrong address. When leaving the idiot driver reversed onto a muddy field and became stuck.
Iceland had to call for two pick-up trucks to come get it. The first was 12 tonne and not up to the task. The second was 17 tonne and did the job. It ended at about 2am the next morning.
Six hours later my father and his fiancee discovered that the weight of the two trucks had destroyed the driveway where the trucks had driven.
He contacted Iceland, was put in touch with their solicitors, who initially called him and asked for photos of the damage and quotes for the repairs, and he got these to them quickly. The quotes for a new drive were 20K. Repairs are 8K. He got two quotes.
For four months he has emailed them with about two responses to eight requests for this money so he can get the drive repaired. The state of the driveway has been leading to his vehicles dragging on the drive, and he also wanted to sell the property in July. He threatened them with legal action "next week" for a month and was still ignored. He was then told by phone that the solicitor was waiting for Iceland to get a van driver's report - whilst Tesco told him that no request was sent. I then became involved, calling the point of contact solicitor who was merely a trainee solicitor just out of Uni. He knew very little of what was going on and provided no positive signs of sorting out this mess.
We started our case against Iceland, using their address from Companies house website, asking for 8K for the repairs, 1K for the inconvenience of having to effect said repairs, and interest and costs. We received default Judgement due to lack of Acknowledgement three weeks ago. Thank God - my Dad needs to pay for the repairs and sell his house. He is already delayed by one month. After the sale he is moving in with his fiancee, which will significantly reduce their combined outgoings, by approx. 1K a week.
The Acknowledgment was due by the 20th June. We filed for Default Judgement on the 21st. We were sent Default on the 22nd.
a week later, after my father has made significant preparation to get the repairs done, we receive a letter from the solicitor, stating acknowledgement was sent to MCOL on the 22nd and they intended to Defend.
Another week later we get a letter stating that Iceland only forwarded the initial claim to their solicitor on 22nd June, and in any case, we were suing the wrong party - we needed to sue the tow company, as my father wrote in an email that it was "not Iceland's vehicle that did the damage but the tow trucks." We were invited to end the claim in 7 days or they would send an application to the Court. lol
I called them, told them that they had 30 days to make payment as of date of Judgement, and that any delay beyond this would result in the delay of the repairs, the subsequent delay in the sale of my father's property, and we would be seeking 1K a week from them in a new claim should this happen.
We put this warning an email today, on receiving their application to the Court, which states they have a "very real prospect of defending the claim" and intend to do so. They state they received the claim on June 22nd from Iceland and acknowledged the same day.
I want to know two things really - your opinions on the case, which seems a slam dunk to me, and their chances of getting the Default Judgement overturned.
I'm a bit mirky on the grounds it can be dismissed and have read different things online - it seems they need to meet two criteria - i.e. file in a timely fashion and prove they have a good chance of mounting a Defence, and possibly a third thing (see here - http://www.lexology.com/library/deta...a-5f46b9d9f0ab ), depending on whether the Courts have, in the last few years, not being taking these applications so lightly - i.e. a Judgement of this size, which is 10K, demands significant reason to be overturned, is not taken lightly by the Judge, and it is only small amounts which might result in Judgments being overturned?
They have also asked for the application hearing without a hearing.
At the moment, we are planning to send an email to Court requesting a hearing if the Judge is minded to hear the application out, and we are preparing five Witness statements from family and friends to state unequivocally that the drive has been damaged by the Iceland action, although at the moment they do not seem to be disputing such.
Here's the skinny:
In January at around 9pm an Iceland delivery truck drove onto my fathers property, up his 100 meter driveway and up to his front door. It was at the wrong address. When leaving the idiot driver reversed onto a muddy field and became stuck.
Iceland had to call for two pick-up trucks to come get it. The first was 12 tonne and not up to the task. The second was 17 tonne and did the job. It ended at about 2am the next morning.
Six hours later my father and his fiancee discovered that the weight of the two trucks had destroyed the driveway where the trucks had driven.
He contacted Iceland, was put in touch with their solicitors, who initially called him and asked for photos of the damage and quotes for the repairs, and he got these to them quickly. The quotes for a new drive were 20K. Repairs are 8K. He got two quotes.
For four months he has emailed them with about two responses to eight requests for this money so he can get the drive repaired. The state of the driveway has been leading to his vehicles dragging on the drive, and he also wanted to sell the property in July. He threatened them with legal action "next week" for a month and was still ignored. He was then told by phone that the solicitor was waiting for Iceland to get a van driver's report - whilst Tesco told him that no request was sent. I then became involved, calling the point of contact solicitor who was merely a trainee solicitor just out of Uni. He knew very little of what was going on and provided no positive signs of sorting out this mess.
We started our case against Iceland, using their address from Companies house website, asking for 8K for the repairs, 1K for the inconvenience of having to effect said repairs, and interest and costs. We received default Judgement due to lack of Acknowledgement three weeks ago. Thank God - my Dad needs to pay for the repairs and sell his house. He is already delayed by one month. After the sale he is moving in with his fiancee, which will significantly reduce their combined outgoings, by approx. 1K a week.
The Acknowledgment was due by the 20th June. We filed for Default Judgement on the 21st. We were sent Default on the 22nd.
a week later, after my father has made significant preparation to get the repairs done, we receive a letter from the solicitor, stating acknowledgement was sent to MCOL on the 22nd and they intended to Defend.
Another week later we get a letter stating that Iceland only forwarded the initial claim to their solicitor on 22nd June, and in any case, we were suing the wrong party - we needed to sue the tow company, as my father wrote in an email that it was "not Iceland's vehicle that did the damage but the tow trucks." We were invited to end the claim in 7 days or they would send an application to the Court. lol
I called them, told them that they had 30 days to make payment as of date of Judgement, and that any delay beyond this would result in the delay of the repairs, the subsequent delay in the sale of my father's property, and we would be seeking 1K a week from them in a new claim should this happen.
We put this warning an email today, on receiving their application to the Court, which states they have a "very real prospect of defending the claim" and intend to do so. They state they received the claim on June 22nd from Iceland and acknowledged the same day.
I want to know two things really - your opinions on the case, which seems a slam dunk to me, and their chances of getting the Default Judgement overturned.
I'm a bit mirky on the grounds it can be dismissed and have read different things online - it seems they need to meet two criteria - i.e. file in a timely fashion and prove they have a good chance of mounting a Defence, and possibly a third thing (see here - http://www.lexology.com/library/deta...a-5f46b9d9f0ab ), depending on whether the Courts have, in the last few years, not being taking these applications so lightly - i.e. a Judgement of this size, which is 10K, demands significant reason to be overturned, is not taken lightly by the Judge, and it is only small amounts which might result in Judgments being overturned?
They have also asked for the application hearing without a hearing.
At the moment, we are planning to send an email to Court requesting a hearing if the Judge is minded to hear the application out, and we are preparing five Witness statements from family and friends to state unequivocally that the drive has been damaged by the Iceland action, although at the moment they do not seem to be disputing such.
)
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