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CCJ Set Aside CP Plus
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tedharris02
Posts: 38 Forumite
Hello folk
I require your assistance in writing up a Set Aside for a CCJ, and in getting the claim dismissed. But I'll give you a quick background first:
1) The Defendant is my mother, who is a registered keeper of the vehicle, and a staff member at Meadowhall
2) She is one of 100s of staff members being issued with 'tickets'for parking at meadowhall, which you can read about online Star article titled "Staff facing '£18, 000 parking fines' claim amid row over car park at Meadowhall"
3) She received a letter before claim, at which point I advised her to wait for a claim form, and that I would help to prepare her defence for her.
4) Over a month passed by, no claim form came. Instead, she got a default judgement
5) Her manager, her doctor and Human Resources are all trying to get any further charges dropped, and are appealing to CP Plus to stop ticketing her car constantly, but right now the issue is the CCJ that has already been issued by default
(She has physical injuries which leave her in pain after a full shift at work on her feet, and the "staff car park" if it can be called that is 30 minutes walk for her, basically in Rotherham, it is also enturely inadequate and unsafe, as can be seen from the article).
Anyway, in terms of the Set Aside, I have used existing templates to come up with the below, please advise if this is good, and what needs to be improved. Thanks and I appreciate any help. Hopefully, Ive managed to abide by the forum rules.
This Witness Statement is in support of my application dated 19/01/2018 to
• Set aside the Default Judgement dated XXX as it was not properly served at my current address;
• Order for the Claimant to pay the Defendant £255 as reimbursement for the set aside fee;
• Order for the original claim to be dismissed.
1. Default Judgement
1.1. I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgement against me as the Defendant on XXX. However, this claim form has not been served at my current address and I thus was not aware of the Default Judgement until XXX.
1.2. On 10/12/2017 I received a letter from the Claimant to my current address, advising me of the intention to obtain a Court Judgement for the first time, and I had started to prepare my defence. However, having not received claim form, I was surprised and disappointed to receive a Default Judgement without having the opportunity to submit a defence.
1.3. On 9/01/2018 I contacted Northampton County Court to find out details of the Default Judgement, and I was advised to seek a set aside, as I had not received a claim form, and had not been provided the opportunity to submit a defence.
1.4. Considering the above I was unable to defend this claim properly. I thus believe that the Default Judgement against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside.
2. Order dismissing the Claim
2.1. I further believe that the original Claim by the Claimant has no merit and should thus be dismissed. I understand that the Claimant is a Parking Company which seeks to claim for “Parking Charge Notices” which the Claimant believes are due as a result of an alleged breach of contract for parking by a motorist.
2.2. I am the Registered Keeper of a vehicle against which the claim has been made and I dispute the claim in its entirety. I believe the claimant has no merit for the following reasons:
2.3. The Claimant alleges that the Defendant violated the agreement by parking in a “No Staff Parking Zone” despite being a member of staff. This is a false claim, as there are no such zones in the car park. The signage clearly indicates that it is a violation of the terms to park as an “on-duty staff member”, as can be seen by the attached photo to this Witness Statement. The Defendant submits that neither the Claimant, nor their enforcement staff, made any attempts to discern whether the Defended (who is a staff member) was on duty or not at the time, and issued ‘tickets’ even when provided with shopping receipts to demonstrate the Defendant was at the car park as a customer.
2.4. The Claimant alleges that the Defendant was the driver at the time of all the alleged contravention. I strongly deny this claim, as the Claimant has provided no evidence to support this claim. Furthermore, the Defendant’s husband, XXXXXXXX (who is not, and has never been a staff member), has regular use of the vehicle, and has used the car park in this vehicle. Neither the Claimant, nor their enforcement staff, had made any efforts to discern who the driver of the vehicle was at the time of the alleged contraventions.
2.5. The Claimant has issued a request for a payment of £120 for each alleged contravention, despite the signage clearly stating that charge for violating the terms and conditions is £80. I believe this is an attempt by the Claimant to extract extra profits without any justification from the Defendant, and has no contractual bases.
2.6. The Claimant has failed to provide adequate staff parking in Meadowhall and has deliberately set out on a campaign to profit from staff members, regardless of whether or not they were driving the vehicle, or were off-duty. I believe the Claimant has acted entirely unreasonably in its pursuit of the charges, and how it operates the car park.
2.7. I also believe that the Claimant’s claim is without merit due to substantial issues in law. This is for the following main reasons.
2.8. Lack of Standing by Claimant: The Claimant is unlikely to be the landowner of the car park in question, and will have no proprietary interest in it. This means that the Claimant, as a matter of law, will have no locus standi to litigate in their own name. Any consideration will have been provided by the landholder, and only they would have been able sue for any damages or trespass.
2.9. No Loss Suffered by Claimant: Their claim is presumably based on damages for alleged breach of contract. It is a fundamental principle of English Law that a party who suffers damages through breach of contract can only seek through court action to be put back in the same position as they would have been if the breach had not occurred. In order to do so, they must demonstrate their actual, or genuine, pre-estimate of loss. I submit that no loss has been suffered by the Claimant as a result of any alleged breaches of contract on the part of any motorist of the vehicle of which I am the Registered Keeper. I further submit that any loss to the landholder (which would be the only party able to claim such losses) would be zero or negligible.
*
[Although from what I read this no longer seems valid?]*
2.10. Claimed charge is an Unenforceable Penalty: I further submit that the Parking Charge that the Claimant claimed, given it is not based on any loss suffered due to the alleged breach, is nothing but an unenforceable penalty
2.11. No contract with the claimant. Any contract must have offer, acceptance and consideration both ways. There would not have been consideration from CP Plus to the motorist; the gift of parking is the landowner’s, not that of CP Plus. The car park in question is understood to be free. Therefore there is no consideration from motorist to CP Plus.
2.12. On this basis I believe that the Claimant has not provided any reasonable cause of action and thus the claim should be dismissed in its entirety.
I require your assistance in writing up a Set Aside for a CCJ, and in getting the claim dismissed. But I'll give you a quick background first:
1) The Defendant is my mother, who is a registered keeper of the vehicle, and a staff member at Meadowhall
2) She is one of 100s of staff members being issued with 'tickets'for parking at meadowhall, which you can read about online Star article titled "Staff facing '£18, 000 parking fines' claim amid row over car park at Meadowhall"
3) She received a letter before claim, at which point I advised her to wait for a claim form, and that I would help to prepare her defence for her.
4) Over a month passed by, no claim form came. Instead, she got a default judgement
5) Her manager, her doctor and Human Resources are all trying to get any further charges dropped, and are appealing to CP Plus to stop ticketing her car constantly, but right now the issue is the CCJ that has already been issued by default
(She has physical injuries which leave her in pain after a full shift at work on her feet, and the "staff car park" if it can be called that is 30 minutes walk for her, basically in Rotherham, it is also enturely inadequate and unsafe, as can be seen from the article).
Anyway, in terms of the Set Aside, I have used existing templates to come up with the below, please advise if this is good, and what needs to be improved. Thanks and I appreciate any help. Hopefully, Ive managed to abide by the forum rules.
This Witness Statement is in support of my application dated 19/01/2018 to
• Set aside the Default Judgement dated XXX as it was not properly served at my current address;
• Order for the Claimant to pay the Defendant £255 as reimbursement for the set aside fee;
• Order for the original claim to be dismissed.
1. Default Judgement
1.1. I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgement against me as the Defendant on XXX. However, this claim form has not been served at my current address and I thus was not aware of the Default Judgement until XXX.
1.2. On 10/12/2017 I received a letter from the Claimant to my current address, advising me of the intention to obtain a Court Judgement for the first time, and I had started to prepare my defence. However, having not received claim form, I was surprised and disappointed to receive a Default Judgement without having the opportunity to submit a defence.
1.3. On 9/01/2018 I contacted Northampton County Court to find out details of the Default Judgement, and I was advised to seek a set aside, as I had not received a claim form, and had not been provided the opportunity to submit a defence.
1.4. Considering the above I was unable to defend this claim properly. I thus believe that the Default Judgement against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside.
2. Order dismissing the Claim
2.1. I further believe that the original Claim by the Claimant has no merit and should thus be dismissed. I understand that the Claimant is a Parking Company which seeks to claim for “Parking Charge Notices” which the Claimant believes are due as a result of an alleged breach of contract for parking by a motorist.
2.2. I am the Registered Keeper of a vehicle against which the claim has been made and I dispute the claim in its entirety. I believe the claimant has no merit for the following reasons:
2.3. The Claimant alleges that the Defendant violated the agreement by parking in a “No Staff Parking Zone” despite being a member of staff. This is a false claim, as there are no such zones in the car park. The signage clearly indicates that it is a violation of the terms to park as an “on-duty staff member”, as can be seen by the attached photo to this Witness Statement. The Defendant submits that neither the Claimant, nor their enforcement staff, made any attempts to discern whether the Defended (who is a staff member) was on duty or not at the time, and issued ‘tickets’ even when provided with shopping receipts to demonstrate the Defendant was at the car park as a customer.
2.4. The Claimant alleges that the Defendant was the driver at the time of all the alleged contravention. I strongly deny this claim, as the Claimant has provided no evidence to support this claim. Furthermore, the Defendant’s husband, XXXXXXXX (who is not, and has never been a staff member), has regular use of the vehicle, and has used the car park in this vehicle. Neither the Claimant, nor their enforcement staff, had made any efforts to discern who the driver of the vehicle was at the time of the alleged contraventions.
2.5. The Claimant has issued a request for a payment of £120 for each alleged contravention, despite the signage clearly stating that charge for violating the terms and conditions is £80. I believe this is an attempt by the Claimant to extract extra profits without any justification from the Defendant, and has no contractual bases.
2.6. The Claimant has failed to provide adequate staff parking in Meadowhall and has deliberately set out on a campaign to profit from staff members, regardless of whether or not they were driving the vehicle, or were off-duty. I believe the Claimant has acted entirely unreasonably in its pursuit of the charges, and how it operates the car park.
2.7. I also believe that the Claimant’s claim is without merit due to substantial issues in law. This is for the following main reasons.
2.8. Lack of Standing by Claimant: The Claimant is unlikely to be the landowner of the car park in question, and will have no proprietary interest in it. This means that the Claimant, as a matter of law, will have no locus standi to litigate in their own name. Any consideration will have been provided by the landholder, and only they would have been able sue for any damages or trespass.
2.9. No Loss Suffered by Claimant: Their claim is presumably based on damages for alleged breach of contract. It is a fundamental principle of English Law that a party who suffers damages through breach of contract can only seek through court action to be put back in the same position as they would have been if the breach had not occurred. In order to do so, they must demonstrate their actual, or genuine, pre-estimate of loss. I submit that no loss has been suffered by the Claimant as a result of any alleged breaches of contract on the part of any motorist of the vehicle of which I am the Registered Keeper. I further submit that any loss to the landholder (which would be the only party able to claim such losses) would be zero or negligible.
*
[Although from what I read this no longer seems valid?]*
2.10. Claimed charge is an Unenforceable Penalty: I further submit that the Parking Charge that the Claimant claimed, given it is not based on any loss suffered due to the alleged breach, is nothing but an unenforceable penalty
2.11. No contract with the claimant. Any contract must have offer, acceptance and consideration both ways. There would not have been consideration from CP Plus to the motorist; the gift of parking is the landowner’s, not that of CP Plus. The car park in question is understood to be free. Therefore there is no consideration from motorist to CP Plus.
2.12. On this basis I believe that the Claimant has not provided any reasonable cause of action and thus the claim should be dismissed in its entirety.
0
Comments
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Add that any enforcement proceedings regarding the default ccj are put on hold pending the outcome of the application for the judgement to be set aside0
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The Meadowhall employees (particularly those with conditions that means the person meets the EA definition of disability, and should be offered a reasonable adjustment to access their job) have a case against Meadowhall.
That - several claims against THEM - would soon make Meadowhall sit up and sack CP Plus. Long overdue, IMHO, but maybe these employees need to do that when they've left their jobs in a couple of years.
Plenty of time, tick, tock...PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
CLICK at the top or bottom of any page where it says:
Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD0 -
Thanks Quentin, will add that.
Coupon-mad, glad to hear from you. Is it worth adding in about reasonable adjustments? She is not a blue badge holder, it was never an issue for her in the past. But she works on her feet, which causes her a lot of pain afterwards, and she just wants to be able to walk to her car. Not limp for half an hour.
She's genuinely considering leaving Meadowhall as a result.
Now that HR, her doc, and her employer (the store) is directly involved Im hoping it eventually gets resolved. The CCJ is in the tune of 1300 quid, which she will struggle to afford.0 -
Yes to 'reasonable adjustments' if the medical condition/injuries affect her daily life (in this case, her mobility) and are expected to last or recur (or have lasted and continue) for 12 months.
That's the definition of disability, pretty much.PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
CLICK at the top or bottom of any page where it says:
Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD0 -
Thanks, Ive added these in now:
2.5. The Claimant has failed to make reasonable adjustments for the Defendant’s medical and physical condition, in order to allow reasonable access to Meadowhall. The Defendant experiences significant physical discomfort due to injuries which affect the Defendants daily life, as noted by the Defendant’s doctor, employer and Human Resources.
2.6. The Claimant has a log of the vehicles registration number which allows them to conduct enforcement in an entirely unreasonable manner, issuing a parking charge at every opportunity when the enforcement officers observe the vehicle registration with no attempts made to discern whether the parking conditions have been violated.
Hopefully we get the set aside and at the very least get a proper chance to defend it. Now just need tp pay the 255 on monday and send it all off0 -
Also, Ive removed the no loss clause, as it is indeed out of date. Is the defence as it stands any good? Im trying to read through other similar threads to see whats relevant.
Im finding the whole CP Plus POPLA/POFA compliance things a bit confusing though.0 -
I know you are busy dealing with this, but would you spare a few minutes to add your Mum's case to our campaign to get WHICH? magazine involved.
The relevant link is in the first post of the thread below. Please get everyone who has been affected by this to contact WHICH? as well. The more people that tell WHICH? what's going on the better, so it needs to be lots of individual complaints.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5765579I married my cousin. I had to...I don't have a sister.
All my screwdrivers are cordless."You're Safety Is My Primary Concern Dear" - Laks0 -
I know you are busy dealing with this, but would you spare a few minutes to add your Mum's case to our campaign to get WHICH? magazine involved.
The relevant link is in the first post of the thread below. Please get everyone who has been affected by this to contact WHICH? as well. The more people that tell WHICH? what's going on the better, so it needs to be lots of individual complaints.
l]
Hi, I will do. Plenty of people at her work place suffering a similar fate. Dont have time right now but will certainly keep pursing this.0 -
Is it too late to argue they didnt follow the post 1st October protocol for LBCCC?0
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Not too late.
Have you searched the forum & read the 2017 Meadowhall threads? One was very similar, might have points worth copying.PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
CLICK at the top or bottom of any page where it says:
Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD0
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