Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea v Beko Poland Manufacturing & Ors

In complex, interrelated proceedings, the court may align the timing of pleadings where that course promotes a coherent view of the issues and avoids divisive or inefficient case management. Alignment is a case-specific procedural decision. It does not establish a general precedent that all steps in all related proceedings must occur simultaneously or in lockstep.

The claimant brought proceedings against multiple defendants, with Part 20 proceedings involving additional parties. The court considered competing proposals for the timing of further pleadings, including amended Particulars of Additional Claim, defences and replies. The central case-management issue was whether the non-Celotex pleadings should proceed as quickly as possible or on dates aligned across the related proceedings.

1. The court fixed a coordinated timetable for the non-Celotex pleadings. Celotex’s Amended Particulars of Additional Claim were to be served by 19 December 2025; defences to the Particulars of Additional Claim and any other Particulars of Additional Claim were to be served by 13 March 2026; and replies were to be served by 27 March 2026.
2. Although advancing all proceedings as quickly as possible might appear obvious, that course was unattractive and potentially divisive at this relatively early stage. The pleadings were sufficiently interrelated that drafting them in an aligned sequence would assist the parties and the court in seeing the whole picture and identifying issues that were not merely repetitive.
3. The alignment principle was confined to the procedural circumstances of the case. It was not a precedent requiring every procedural step in all sets of proceedings to take place at the same time. The court expressly rejected treating alignment as a general lockstep rule.
4. The court recognised that pleadings might not close before the case management conference in December, but considered that the conference should proceed and that no material prejudice should result from the extended timetable. Further applications could be made if necessary.