The Court of Appeal has given judgment in two appeals, holding that it was not possible to substitute one defendant for another after expiry of the limitation period where the claimant had sued the original defendant in the mistaken belief that it had acquired the liabilities of the proposed new defendant. In doing so, the Court overruled the longstanding obiter dicta of Leggatt J in Insight Group Ltd v Kingston Smith [2014] 1 WLR 1448. As a result, the distinction between a case where the claimant wrongly believes that the defendant originally sued is the entity which was negligent and a case where the claimant knows that the original defendant did not do the work complained about, but wrongly believes that it is nevertheless liable has become a crucial one.
The decision and its implications are summarised in this note by Jamie Carpenter KC, who acted for the successful appellants.
To read the judgment, please click here. To read the full note, please click below.
