Small claim

[NOCAB]

Hi,

I recently won a small claim against a company for £6000, but the company is a Ltd company so the director is stating he doesn't owe the money the company does and therefore he is not liable, however with the contract that he signed is a clause making him personally liable for any company debts should the company not be able to pay.

How do I therefore enforce the payment now from the director as he has stated the company can't or won't pay, as the small claim was won against the Ltd company which confuses the issue re any subsequent debt collection service, be this a bailiff or HCE?

Cheers.

[R0b]

The director is correct. If you issued a claim against the company who was a defendant, then your judgment is only effective against the company, not the director. You should have joined the director as a second defendant and then you could have enforced against either.

Only option would be to issue a second claim against the director and rely on that clause but there could be a risk that you might not be successful. If the director was advised or represented, it could be argued that any second action is an abuse of process because you had the opportunity to pursue the director but decided to claim should against the company, not both. Another defence the director could make is res judicata, which is that the matter has already been adjudicated and you cannot then issue a second claim for the same action.

[NOCAB]

Hi, thank you, could I not raise an N244 application to ask for the director to be added to the claim?

[NOCAB]

Also the company address is different to the directors address but the small claims process does not provide for more than 1 address so how would I include both parties details?

[R0b]

You can't add the director to a judgment after the fact, he has a right to defend himself. Once a judgment is given, that is the end of the game unless the judgment is appealed.

I think you are confusing the small claims track with the process for issuing claims. There is no such thing as a small claims process, rather County Courts allocate claims to a particular track depending on a number of factors. Most claims under £10,000 are allocated to the small claims track where some of the normal rules don't apply and legal costs are severely limited.

There's a couple of methods for issuing county court claims: Money Claims Online, using the N1 claim form or more recently, the Online Civil Claims pilot scheme. Money Claims allows you to add two defendants but no more, and if I recall different addresses can be added. N1 Claim form you can add as many defendants and addresses as you like but I believe for the pilot scheme you can only issue a claim against one defendant.

However, all of the above is irrelevant since you've already obtained one judgment, so as I mentioned in an earlier post, your only other option would be to issue a fresh claim against the director, with reference to that clause that makes him personally liable.

[NOCAB]

Okay