Gladstones Court Action

Half_way

Another question, who's car park was it that SIP were/are infesting?

chilly9876

It's a private car park in Stockport.

I'm going to do some homework on previous cases then put up a sample defence for you experts to check.

Coupon-mad

Great - so glad you are defending this one. It is risk-free because even if you lost (unlikely) you would pay less than G's have inflated the figure to! I have every confidence in you defending this, especially as the driver has died and SIP do not use compliant documents to hold a keeper liable, nor are their signs clear (and you can say you have never been shown the signs/evidence at all).

Gladstones cases on here have not won at all, not even gone to hearings, so I reckon we can help you see this nasty threat off. This week I added some really good recent defences as links under 'Small Claim?' in the NEWBIES thread. Several are Gladstones ones and you are welcome to plagiarise entire appeals if you wish, then tweak them to be relevant for your case. Only read recent ones.

chilly9876

So I've been looking through defences and have literally copied and pasted one of them.





Please give your feedback, am I missing anything?




Statement of Defence

I am XXXXX, defendant in this matter and deny liability for the entirety of the claim for the following
reasons:





(1).
It is admitted that the Defendant was the authorised registered keeper of the vehicle in question at the
time of the alleged incident.





(2).
The identity of the driver of the vehicle on the date in question has not been ascertained.
a) The Claimant did not identify the driver
b) The Defendant has no liability, as they are the Keeper of the vehicle and the Claimant must rely upon the strict provisions of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 in order to hold the defendant responsible for the driver’s alleged breach.





(3)
The claimant has not provided enough details in the particulars of claim to file a full defence.
In particular, the full details of the contract which it is alleged was broken have not been provided.

a) The Claimant has disclosed no cause of action to give rise to any debt.
b) The Claimant has stated that a parking charge was incurred.
c) The Claimant has given no indication of the nature of the alleged charge in the Particulars of Claim.
The Claimant has therefore disclosed no cause of action.
d) The Particulars of Claim contains no details and fails to establish a cause of action which would enable
the Defendant to prepare a specific defence.
It just states “parking charges” which does not give any indication of on what basis the claim is brought.
There is no information regarding why the charge arose, what the original charge was, what the alleged
contract was nor anything which could be considered a fair exchange of information.
The Particulars of Claim are incompetent in disclosing no cause of action.





e) On the 20th September 2016 another relevant poorly pleaded private parking charge claim by
Gladstones was struck out by District Judge Cross of St Albans County Court without a hearing
due to their ‘roboclaim’ particulars being incoherent, failing to comply with CPR. 16.4 and
‘providing no facts that could give rise to any apparent claim in law’
f) On the 19th Audust 2016 DJ Anson sitting at Preston County Court ruled that the very similar
parking charge particulars of claim were deficient and failing to meet CPR 16.4 and PD 16
paragraphs 7.3 - 7.5. He ordered the Claimant in that case to file new particulars which they failed
to do, and the court confirmed the claim will now be struck out.





(5).
SIP Parking Ltd are not the lawful occupier of the land. I have the reasonable belief that they
do not have the authority to issue charges on this land in their own name and that they have no rights to bring this case.
a) The Claimant is not the landowner and is merely an agent acting on behalf of the landowner and has failed to demonstrate their legal standing to form a contract.
b) The claimant is not the landowner and suffers no loss whatsoever as a result of a vehicle parking at the location in question
c) The Claimant is put to proof that it has sufficient interest in the land or that there are specific terms in its contract to bring an action on its own behalf. As a third party agent, the Claimant may not pursue any
charge. I have the reasonable belief that they do not have the authority to issue charges on this land in their own name and that they have no right to bring action regarding this claim.





(6)
a) The Claimant has at no time provided an explanation how the sum has been calculated, the conduct
that gave rise to it or how the amount has climbed from £100 to £150. This appears to be an added cost
with no apparently no qualification and an attempt at double recovery, which the POFA Schedule 4
specifically disallows.
b) The Protection of Freedom Act Para 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper.





(7)
The driver did not enter into any 'agreement on the charge', no consideration flowed between the
parties and no contract was established.

(a) The Defendant denies that the driver would have agreed to pay the original demand of £100 to agree to the alleged contract had the terms and conditions of the contract been properly displayed and
accessible.





(8)


a) The Defendant also disputes that the Claimant has incurred £50 solicitor costs.
c) The Defendant has the reasonable belief that the Claimant has not incurred £50 costs to pursue an
alleged £100 debt.
d) Not withstanding the Defendant's belief, the costs are in any case not recoverable.
e) The Claimant described the charge of £50.00 "legal fees" not "contractual costs".
CPR 27.14 does not permit these to be recovered in the Small Claims Court.

Half_way

chilly9876 wrote: »

It's a private car park in Stockport.

OK, in most cases a PPC will be infesting someone elses land and acting as their agents, with the landowner being the principal, a complaint to the landowner is one way to get this sorted.

chilly9876

Can someone please have a look at my 1st draft for defence and let me know what I need to add, change and remove please? (It's two posts up.


Really appreciate the help.

The_Deep

Can you post a copy or Gladstones LBA, they have probably opened themselves to a complaint to the SRA.

chilly9876

LBA, NTK and Particulars of Claim (sorry not in order and wrong way around)

Please let me know if there's anything I can add, amend or delete.

Coupon-mad

Can you re-size these pics on your thread as they make it very hard to read. So you will get less views, people will click past.

Is this a car park in Wellington Street, because that seems to be public highway - a road?

System

Location?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.3675109,-2.0921577,3a,71.8y,16.73h,82.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8wmxABIlEfvblF33zD4Pzg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656