Knight v Sage Group Plc

Permission to appeal may be refused where the proposed appeal has no real prospect of success. The Court of Appeal will not interfere with a discretionary decision below unless there is a proper basis for doing so. An application may also be dismissed where the applicant fails to attend without explanation, particularly when the papers disclose no arguable error in the decision under challenge.

Miss Knight applied for permission to appeal against Mr Justice McCombe’s refusal to set aside an order made in her absence by His Honour Judge Taylor. Judge Taylor had struck out her proceedings as an abuse of process and made a restraining order in the Grepe v Loam form. Mr Justice McCombe refused to reinstate the proceedings, concluding that they had no real prospect of success and that the restraining order was justified. Miss Knight did not attend the Court of Appeal hearing and gave no explanation for her absence.

1. Application dismissed. Miss Knight’s absence, without any explanation or indication that she intended to attend, was a sufficient procedural reason to dismiss the application.
2. In any event, the application had no real prospect of success. Judge Taylor had given detailed reasons for concluding that the proceedings sought to re-litigate matters already determined, including in earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal.
3. Mr Justice McCombe had been entitled, in the exercise of his discretion, to refuse to set aside the order made in Miss Knight’s absence. There was no real prospect that the Court of Appeal would interfere with that discretionary decision.
4. The same applied to the restraining order. Judge Taylor had explained why the history of Miss Knight’s litigation justified an order in the Grepe v Loam form, and Mr Justice McCombe had found no reason to expect a different conclusion if the earlier order were set aside.

The formal order was: application dismissed.

• Court of Appeal (Civil Division): Permission to appeal was refused and the application was dismissed.
• High Court: Mr Justice McCombe refused to set aside the earlier order made in Miss Knight’s absence.
• High Court, deputy judge: His Honour Judge Taylor struck out the proceedings for abuse and made a restraining order in the Grepe v Loam form.