Taking The Airlines To Court

Mark2spark

steve1500 wrote: »

Receive TC's defence via Travlaw which just stated that the reason for the delay was EC, with no explanation of what the EC was.

Can someone give me a clue as to when I actually find out what the EC was

Ensure that you print out the relevent section from the REg that states the airline has to *prove* the EC.
Claiming a tech issue, with no documentation, is not proof.

When they finally get around to naming a part that they didn't expect to break down, then you get to counter claim with the stance 'but why did it break down then? It can only be an oversight in maintenance, otherwise what is maintenance for?' type of response.

Star9272

Please help?

When you first submit a claim with MCOL do you have to list all the cases you will rely on or is this enough?

I claim compensation under Article 7 of EC 261/2004 pursuant to the Sturgeon judgment in the ECJ (Case C-402/07 of 19 November 2009) which provides for €400 per passenger

Should I include wallentin in this as I will be using it?

Mark2spark

Star9272 wrote: »

Please help?

When you first submit a claim with MCOL do you have to list all the cases you will rely on or is this enough?

I claim compensation under Article 7 of EC 261/2004 pursuant to the Sturgeon judgment in the ECJ (Case C-402/07 of 19 November 2009) which provides for €400 per passenger

Should I include wallentin in this as I will be using it?

"I claim compensation under Article 7 of EC 261/2004 which provides for €400 per passenger"

will be sufficient at the initial stage.

astravanman

While I wait for any response to my LBA I just want to firm up on the procedure if I have to start court action. The 6 years will be up in December so will need to start any court action before then.

My claim is for 3 x 600 euros (total 1800 euro). On the court claim form do I convert this to uk pounds and then calculate the interest on this amount in £'s.
For e.g. if it's 1800 euros do I enter the amount £1500 on the claim form? If I start court proceedings next month, will I include interest on £1500 for 5 years 11 months @ 8% p/a. Blimey that would be £710!

Star9272

astravanman wrote: »

While I wait for any response to my LBA I just want to firm up on the procedure if I have to start court action. The 6 years will be up in December so will need to start any court action before then.

My claim is for 3 x 600 euros (total 1800 euro). On the court claim form do I convert this to uk pounds and then calculate the interest on this amount in £'s.
For e.g. if it's 1800 euros do I enter the amount £1500 on the claim form? If I start court proceedings next month, will I include interest on £1500 for 5 years 11 months @ 8% p/a. Blimey that would be £710!

Found this by jimcbob

The appropriate thing to do is to claim the amount in Euros (being the currency in which you are entitled to payment under the Regulation) and then to calculate the equivalent in sterling as of the date of claim (see Practice Direction 16, para 9.1.)

Technically, the judgment should then in the form "It is ordered that the defendant pay the claim EUR[xxx] or the Sterling equivalent at the time of payment" (see Practice Director 40 para. 10) although it is more usual, in practice, just to convert the EUR figure to Sterling at the date of judgment. This is obviously right, as your entitlement is to a payment in Euros under the Regulation, and you should not take the currency risk due to the airline's failure to pay.

As to interest, the rate of 8% is the prescribed rate under the Judgments Act 1838, which applies AFTER judgment. Most people claim 8% for pre-judgment interest in their claim form because it is the highest rate that will automatically be awarded if default judgment is granted (CPR r. 12.6(1)(b)). However, the rate of pre-judgment interest is discretionary: it is intended to reflect the rate at which a person with the general characteristics of the claimant (e.g. an individual consumer, in these cases) could have borrowed that sum of money during the period in which they have been wrongly kept out of it. It can therefore be helpful to include in your evidence for a court hearing your bank's authorised overdraft rate for the relevant period, as it gives an indication of borrowing costs. 5% sounds about right on that basis.

RedSky1974

Hi

I have initiated the court action and have now received the questionnaire. Virgin have disputed the claim, as expected, arguing extraordinary circumstances for technical failure (engine needed replacing, spare aircraft was out of use because it was hit by lightening).

We will try out the mediation first to see if we can come to an agreement.

However, I have a query..

I filled the initial small claims court in online under one name, stating that we are claiming for the 5 passengers. The claimant is therefore one name.

Under the defence, Virgin have written "As a preliminary issue, the Claimant purports to bring this claim on behalf of 4 other persons. The claimant has no standing to bring a representative action. In the premises and insofar as can be discerned from the Particulars of Claim, the Claimant is only entitled to claim relief to the extent recoverable in his sole name."

Can anyone shed some light? As far as I'm aware I couldn't list further names on the initial form. Correct me if I'm wrong!

Much appreciated.

David_e

crouchmagic wrote: »

Can anyone shed some light? As far as I'm aware I couldn't list further names on the initial form. Correct me if I'm wrong!

To be honest, you probably are wrong. It is a subject that has been discussed quite a bit on the forums. Try searching "locus standii" (!) and see what you get.

JPears

David_e wrote: »

To be honest, you probably are wrong. It is a subject that has been discussed quite a bit on the forums. Try searching "locus standii" (!) and see what you get.

But check what the terms and conditions of booking are with Virgin. If you as claimant are the lead passenger and T&Cs state that all communications etc will be through you then their arguement has less merit. In your court bundle, put this at the beginning of your statement and that you wish the judge to decide on locus standi, pointing out that you do not wish to waste the court's time by bringing 5 separate cases.
Have you put the details of the others in your particulars of claim?

RedSky1974

Thanks for the reply.

I've done a search on the forum for both locus standi and lead passenger but I can't seem to find many results.

Just a little more info:

• I assume I am the lead passenger, as my name is first on the eticket and correspondence to my email address etc. I can't seem to find information about a lead passenger on Virgin's website
• I initiated the claim under my father's name
• The 5 tickets were purchased using my mother's card
• We are a family of 4, and my fiance (got engaged in Orlando actually, and the delayed flight messed my plans up!) We were all booked under the same eticket reference number

Could I argue locus standi for the above since we are one collective?

Thank you


edit: JPears - On the initial form on the small claims website I copied and pasted a template from this forum, the details of the other passengers were not written however I did state that the claim was for 5 passengers in total.

I have not yet completed the questionnaire which was sent to me yesterday.

astravanman

I've been reading up about this as I'll probably be submitting a claim in the next week or so where I'll be making a claim for a party of 3 people. It does say in the mcol user guide: Claims issued via MCOL can only have one claimant – if you need to issue a claim with multiple Claimants (for example, on behalf of a couple), please contact the County Court Money Claim Centre (CCMCC). Consensus is if it's more than one claimant then best not to use mcol. I've read that others have had to apply to have their claim amended to include other claimants, but I think that costs £80.