Defence failure to comply with court Order

[prophet01]

Good evening all

I'm helping a pensioner with her County Court claim to get back several thousands of pounds from a crappy roofer who's work failed to rectify a leak which he'd stated it would. She then had to pay another roofer to to fix it along with the crappy roofer's substandatd work.

A trial date has been set for 18 March 2025 and the court ordered the following to be done by 13 January 2025:

It is ordered that
The following steps must be taken so that any documents which are sent arrive by the date shown.

Send all of the documents that are relevant to your case to the court at Before 4pm to the above address, also send them to the other side. Both parties must do this.These documents should be placed in date order and should be numbered in the bottom right hand corner.

You should include the following documents if available:

A copy of the contract/agreement
Relevant correspondence, including text messages and emails

Send to the court and send to the other party your own witness statement and also witness statements from anyone who can give relevant evidence about your case.

Both parties must do this.

If you do not follow these Instructions within the time llmits, the judge may decide that your case should be struck out, which means that you will not be able to continue to bring or defend this claim, and the other side may be able to ask the court to make a judgment against you.

The roofer has failed to deliver any documents or statement to the claimant, and the court has confirmed that he's not delivered anything to the court as ordered.

Within two hours of delivering her documents on the due date to Mr. Crappy Roofer he messaged her stating:

I've received the documents that you gave to my wife...I have photos and messages evidencing that the roof was never an issue...I suggest you drop this now.

I got her to message back the following:

Thank you for confirming receipt of my court documents yesterday as ordered by the court. I note that you have failed to provide me with yours.

Today she was given confirmation that not only did Mr. Crappy Roofer fail to deliver the ordered documents to her but he also failed to deliver them to the court.
Is it worth considering asking for judgment to be made against him on the basis that he's failed to comply with the court order?

[Pezza54]

IMO not worth it on the small claims track. Deadlines aren't taken as gospel as they are on other tracks.
My advice is to wait to see if the court strikes out the defence or excludes the defendant's witness statement and evidence from the trial

[prophet01]

Pezza54
Thanks for the response.

...My advice is to wait to see if the court strikes out the defence or excludes the defendant's witness statement and evidence from the trial

Might the court/judge do either or both of these things without communication from us?

Is it worth writing to the court/judge notifying that the defendant has failed to comply with the order and stating that he has used our issued statement to contact and interfere with our witness, the new roofer who rectified Mr. Crappy Roofer's work and whose full repair rectified the leak. He also provided a report setting out the shoddy workmanship he found undertaken by Mr. Crappy Roofer and finishd the report thus:

In my professional opinion the repairs that had been previously carried out [by Mr. Crappy Roofer] had not been done to a sufficient standard in order to fix the issue causing more issues for the home owner.

I included the report as an evidence exhibit in the witness statement

[Pezza54]

Did the 2nd roofer take photos of the 1st roofer's shoddy work?
You could send an email to the court a few days before the trial writing URGENT in the subject line and giving the date and time of the hearing
State the claimant received the defendant's witness statement late/did not receive it. Also say the claimant contacted the defendant on xxxxxxx(date) to inform him they had not received his WS. Take a copy of the email to the court and the email/letter to defendant on the trial date
The email could also state how the claimant gas been disadvantaged: Insufficient time to digest it and prepare questions

It is up to the judge whether the party who serves their WS late is allowed to present it at the trial. Cpr frequently states the "court may" not the "court will"

[prophet01]

Did the 2nd roofer take photos of the 1st roofer's shoddy work?...

He did but they didn't really enhance his rather scathing report which went like this:

Inspection findings 24/09/2024
Recently visited the property due to ongoing issues roof leak, as requested by homeowner. On inspection of the property my findings were that
Cracked roof tiles to top of valley
Lead work to top of valley installed incorrectly
New cement work to valley all cracked and falling out in my opinion due to a weak mixed being used, main issue causing leaks was around the valley area where the two roofs meet.

In my professional opinion the repairs that had been previously carried out had not been done to a sufficient standard in order to fix the issue. Causing more issues for the home owner. On arrival to the property to carry out work agreed I found more issues from the previous repairs, I was able to remove the ridges of the roof by simply lifting them off with my hands as they were not fixed in place, once the tiles were striped off the roof there were areas of felt with holes in or simply missing which would not be helping.

[atticus]

To add to what Pezza has said, your friend needs to concentrate on proving her case. If the defendant comes up with evidence, as well as objecting and seeing what the court says about the late provision, scrutinise the evidence and see what points can be made to against it.

[prophet01]

To add to what Pezza has said, your friend needs to concentrate on proving her case...

There's really nothing more we could have done to enhance the evidence of the submitted witness statement and exhibits incorporating photo's evidencing water streaming down the wall months after completion and text messsages from him admitting that his work hadn't fixed the problem.

I even included an analysis of his initial defense case:

Crappy Roofer defence - Analysis
22. In his defence document of 29 September 2024 [Exhibit AT04] Mr. Crappy Roofer made several misrepresentative, contradictory and self-incriminating statements which I feel appropriate to highlight here.

23. Mr. Crappy Roofer stated that I’d agreed with his assessment of what work would need to be undertaken to rectify the water ingress issue [Exhibit AT04 para 2.1]. Quite to the contrary, as mentioned previously, knowing next to nothing about roofing I was 100% reliant upon Mr. Crappy Roofer's expertise as a professional roofer to identify the cause of my leaking roof and to undertake the necessary work to successfully rectify the problem. Rather than agree with his professional assessment all I was in a position to do was to accept it due to my ignorance of such matters.

24. Mr. Crappy Roofer confirmed that the work he undertook was to rectify the leaking roof [Exhibit AT04 para 2.1] and then stated that water ingress continued after completing his work [Exhibit AT04 para 2.2], thereby confirming acceptance that the work he proposed and undertook, to rectify the issue, failed to do so.

25. Mr. Crappy Roofer suggested that the continuing water ingress was simply damp penetrating the brickwork [Exhibit AT04 para 2.3]. The evidence of my several photos sent to Mr. Crappy Roofer showing water streaming down the interior walls, even after he’d sheeted the external brickwork, demonstrates this suggestion to be wrong.

26. Mr. Crappy Roofer stated that the leaking roof had been fixed [Exhibit AT04 para 2.8]. The evidence of my several photos, sent to Mr. Crappy Roofer, showing water streaming down the interior walls even after he’d sheeted the external brickwork demonstrates this statement to be wholly false.

...as well as objecting and seeing what the court says about the late provision, scrutinise the evidence and see what points can be made to against it.

There was no late provision. He hasn't provided any witness statement or evidence at all.

[Pezza54]

Normally in a witness statement paragraphs are started with a date. Otherwise the claimant is likely to be asked at the hearing questions such as "when did the defendant say that?"

If a party is unable to recall the actual date, they should state "On or about......" They should not make up a date

[atticus]

There was no late provision. He hasn't provided any witness statement or evidence at all.

Selective quoting can be fun!

What I said - in full - was

If the defendant comes up with evidence, as well as objecting and seeing what the court says about the late provision, scrutinise the evidence and see what points can be made to against it.

[prophet01]

Pezza54

If your'e referring to the above quoted section of the witness statement each paragraph relates to his defence document, Exhibit AT04, submitted on 29 September 2024 as stated in the first paragraph.

All other paragraphs in the statement referring to specific events are dated accordingly as per below:

16. On 6 December, in response to my further text message, he responded confirming acceptance of my dissatisfaction and acceptance that the work he’d proposed, and which he’d stated would rectify the problem of my leaking roof, had failed to do so [Exhibit AT02 screenshot 12].

17. On 11 December I sent further new photos of water running down my walls [Exhibit AT02 screenshot 12]. On this occasion he responded immediately confirming that he’d come round that afternoon. Again, true to form he failed to turn up.

[prophet01]

atticus

Ha ha, my mistake. Apologies, but no intent to deliberately misrepresent on my part

[Pezza54]

You appear to have included in your witness statement what should have been part of your Reply to Defence

[prophet01]

You appear to have included in your witness statement what should have been part of your Reply to Defence

I'm unaware of any instruction to have replied to the "Defendant's response"
The next step was mediation.

[Pezza54]

Reply to Defence is not compulsory and there isn't any court instruction regarding it. If the claimant decides to draft one it should be filed when with their DQ

[prophet01]

Sorry, but what is DQ?