Monarch delays & Compensations. Listed flights denied in O.P.

fubar4164

Hello all

I'd like to check a point about small claims court proceedings.

I won my case recently in court (yay!) and have just received the cheque from Monarch.

Monarch have attached a form N279 notice of discontinuance which it says I MUST complete and serve on the court, and that the settlement terms are confidential.

Is this correct?

My understanding was that the payment of the amout determined by court finished the case and I didn't need to do any paperwork.

I think Monarch are trying to get me to somehow 'cancel' the record of the case and pretend this is some sort of out of court settlement - presumably not to jeopardise any other claims they have in the pipeline.

Any thoughts gratefully received, but for the moment I don't intend to complete N279.

111KAB

Well I presume the court already know fubar BUT as your rightly state Monarch have requested confidentiality as they don't want others to know they are paying out on your flight. Just ignore the request .... you didn't agree to same.

batman44

fubar4164 wrote: »

Hello all

I'd like to check a point about small claims court proceedings.

I won my case recently in court (yay!) and have just received the cheque from Monarch.

Monarch have attached a form N279 notice of discontinuance which it says I MUST complete and serve on the court, and that the settlement terms are confidential.

Is this correct?

My understanding was that the payment of the amout determined by court finished the case and I didn't need to do any paperwork.

I think Monarch are trying to get me to somehow 'cancel' the record of the case and pretend this is some sort of out of court settlement - presumably not to jeopardise any other claims they have in the pipeline.

Any thoughts gratefully received, but for the moment I don't intend to complete N279.

A notice of discontinuance is really just a formality to let the court know that you no longer have a claim on them for this flight. As you went to court and won I would presume this does not matter as the court knows you won and on the record as such.
If there were no terms imposed by the judge then its up to you if you wish to talk about the case/claim, but I don't think it matters anyway now. I did one with TC after settlement and some good news on my Monarch case soon. As with many on here they have won and talked about the case and I don't know of anyone getting in trouble for it. As for the N279 if they have paid up and the cheque has gone certainty of fate, and you don't have any more issues over your claim the send it off as your claim is over.

legal_magpie

Can you please clarify whether you "won" your case or reached a "settlement" as both can't be right. If you really did win, i.e. The Court made a decision, under no circumstances should you be filing a notice of discontinuance. As you say, the Judge's decision brought the case to an end. All you need to do is to write to the Court saying that the Defendant has paid up in full although legally you don't even have to do that.

A notice of discontinuance is only used when the Claimant decides to drop the case and there can be adverse costs consequences. Also if you really did win, the decision is not confidential.

batman44

Liability for costs

38.6
(1) Unless the court orders otherwise, a claimant who discontinues is liable for the costs which a defendant against whom the claimant discontinues incurred on or before the date on which notice of discontinuance was served on the defendant.
(2) If proceedings are only partly discontinued –
(a) the claimant is liable under paragraph (1) for costs relating only to the part of the proceedings which he is discontinuing; and
(b) unless the court orders otherwise, the costs which the claimant is liable to pay must not be assessed until the conclusion of the rest of the proceedings.
(3) This rule does not apply to claims allocated to the small claims track.
(Rule 44.9 provides for the basis of assessment where the right to costs arises on discontinuance and contains provisions about when a costs order is deemed to have been made and applying for an order under section 194(3) of the Legal Services Act 2007)

Vauban

legal_magpie wrote: »

Can you please clarify whether you "won" your case or reached a "settlement" as both can't be right. If you really did win, i.e. The Court made a decision, under no circumstances should you be filing a notice of discontinuance. As you say, the Judge's decision brought the case to an end. All you need to do is to write to the Court saying that the Defendant has paid up in full although legally you don't even have to do that.

A notice of discontinuance is only used when the Claimant decides to drop the case and there can be adverse costs consequences. Also if you really did win, the decision is not confidential.

Exactly so. The same happened in my case, actually. I won in court and secured an order for Monarch to pay out. Which in fairness they did quite promptly (I think they were probably sick of me, in fairness).

But with the cheque Monarch also enclosed a Notice of Discontinuance and a document that they asked me to sign promising confidentiality. Of course I was going to sign neither, for the reasons the Magpie notes.

My best guess is that Monarch send out this paperwork unthinkingly with every cheque, as it is the easiest thing to do for claims not settled in court (I'm suspect they fold far more claims than they lose).

PS Glad to hear of Batman's optimism. Look forward to the full story in due course ...

fubar4164

Thanks team.

For avoidance of doubt, I won in court, there was no out of court settlement on the steps of court (or similar).

Think I'm just going to cash the cheque and ignore the letter.

franquette

And I'll mention that Monarch are doing this when I go to Court. It seems to me that it's part of their 'unreasonable behaviour', like their first response to me claiming that EEC261/2004 'contains absolutely no provision requiring an airline to pay compensation to its customers in a delay situation, whatever the cause and duration'.

Effervescent

ZB835 8 Sept 2014 Corfu to Luton. Bott & Co would not take on the case because the incoming flight Rome to Luton was delayed arriving into Luton. This then got caught up in the security incident in Luton. I am getting nowhere with the Greek civil aviation authority about the cancellation of the flight. The flight was cancelled AFTER the security incident ended at Luton so I am not sure why Bott & Co won't take this on.

egg1000

Sent a letter, and photographic evidence of the flight MON7107 from Cyprus back to Manchester on the 4th (ended up being the 5th) of August 2010. My family and I were delayed 14 hours in total (in the hot airport), my kids were 8 & 10 at the time. They say without the booking reference, or any evidence then they won't uphold the claim.