Griffiths v Gourlay & Ors

On a renewed application for permission to appeal against refusal of relief from sanctions, a proposed point concerning partial severance may raise a point of principle with a real prospect of success. Where grounds are interlinked, permission need not be confined to that point alone. Permission may be granted on the interlinked grounds while being refused on unrelated grounds.

The claimant sought permission to appeal against Simon LJ’s refusal of relief from sanctions. The consequence was that defences to petitions under section 994 of the Companies Act remained struck out. The underlying dispute concerned responses to 88 requests for further information served pursuant to an Unless Order. Twenty-five responses were initially criticised, although some criticisms fell away and the judge considered four.

The claimant argued that the judge had not addressed stage 3 of the three-stage process in the Denton case, the nature of the section 994 claims, or whether sanctions could be severed in part. The central issue was the proper scope of permission to appeal.

1. The renewed application for permission to appeal was allowed in part. Permission was refused against the earlier order made by Mr Monty QC imposing the Unless Order.

2. The proposed partial severance point had a real prospect of success and raised a point of principle. It concerned whether relief from sanctions could be granted for adequately particularised parts of the defences while sanctions remained in force for inadequately particularised parts.

3. The court declined to limit permission to that point because the other grounds in paragraph 24 were interlinked. Permission was granted on all grounds in paragraph 24, but refused on all other grounds.

4. The judgment determined only the scope of permission to appeal. It did not decide the merits of the sanctions issue, the application of stage 3 of the Denton process, or the construction or application of section 994.

• High Court, Queen’s Bench Division: Simon LJ refused relief against sanctions, leaving the defences to several section 994 petitions struck out.
• Court of Appeal (Civil Division): On renewal, permission was granted on the grounds in paragraph 24, including partial severance. Permission was refused against the earlier Unless Order and all other grounds.