Valery Siniakovich v Nivin Hassan Hassan-Soudey & Ors

For limitation purposes, an action is brought when the claim form is first delivered to the court office with a request for issue. That remains so where the claim form fails electronic acceptance because the full issue fee was not paid. The date does not turn on the claimant’s fault, intention, means, or the speed with which the court detects an underpayment.

The court cannot backdate either the issue of a claim form or the date on which an action was brought. CPR r 3.10 does not cure a pre-commencement failure to pay the correct fee, and CPR r 3.9 does not apply where there is no sanction. Where particulars are filed with the claim form and intended to be read with it, the issue fee is assessed by reference to both documents.

The claimant alleged defamation, malicious falsehood and other causes of action arising from publications in March and April 2024. On 27 March 2025, shortly before expiry of the one-year defamation limitation period, his solicitor electronically filed a claim form and particulars of claim. The documents sought damages and non-monetary relief, but only the fee for the money claim was paid. The filing failed acceptance; after the shortfall was paid, the claim form was issued on 8 April 2025.

A Deputy High Court Judge purported to backdate issue and deem the claim brought on 27 March: [2025] EWHC 1688 (KB). The second and third defendants appealed. The first defendant separately appealed because she had not been given notice of the hearing. The central issue was whether underpayment of the issue fee meant that the action had not been brought on the date of receipt for the purposes of the Limitation Act 1980.

1. Both appeals were allowed. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the order below were set aside. The claimant nevertheless brought the defamation and malicious-falsehood action on 27 March 2025, within the applicable limitation period.

2. The date on which an action is brought is fixed by statutory interpretation. A court has no jurisdiction to backdate the issue date or alter the date on which an action was brought. CPR r 3.10 cannot cure a failure before commencement to pay the correct issue fee, and CPR r 3.9 was unavailable because non-payment of that fee was not a sanction for breach of a rule, order or practice direction.

3. Applying Barnes and Page, the Court held that an action is brought when the claimant first delivers the claim form to the court office. That bright-line rule is unaffected by an inadvertent or deliberate shortfall in the fee, or by a subsequent refusal to issue or electronic failure of acceptance. Payment of a fee is administrative and does not alter the substance of the action. The Court held that Page (No 2) was wrongly decided insofar as it made payment of the full fee a condition of bringing the action.

4. The Court left open the position where no fee is paid or proffered and no fee-remission application is lodged. Deliberate undervaluation or delayed payment may instead attract procedural sanctions, including in an egregious case strike-out.

5. The additional non-money fee was in fact payable. Where particulars of claim are filed with the claim form and intended to be read with it, they form part of the material by which the issue fee is calculated. The claimant’s solicitor had therefore underpaid, but that error did not time-bar the action.

6. The first defendant suffered substantial procedural unfairness through lack of notice of the hearing. It caused no ultimate prejudice because the Court of Appeal heard the substantive arguments and decided them. No declaration was necessary.

• Court of Appeal (Civil Division): Allowed both defendants’ appeals and set aside paragraphs 4 and 5 of the High Court order. It held that the action was brought within time despite the fee shortfall: [2026] EWCA Civ 215.

• High Court, King’s Bench Division, Media and Communications List: The Deputy High Court Judge purported to grant relief under CPR r 3.10 and/or r 3.1(2)(p), treating the claim as issued and brought on 27 March 2025: [2025] EWHC 1688 (KB).