Gladstones court claim - your advice please?

jessielicious

Good afternoon all. I now have a court date (4th January) and am putting together my evidence.

I have a few questions at this stage:
1. IPC Code of Conduct - I have heard reference to a ten minute minimum recommended grace period but can't fine any reference to this - has it changed? I was in the space for 9 minutes. If the Code of Conduct that existed at the time of parking stated 10 minutes, can/ should I obtain an old copy? And if so, where would I find one?
2. I have transcripts of PCM v Bull and UKPC v Masterson regarding the forbidding signage, however I can't seem to find a transcript for Horizon Parking v Mr J. How would I make reference to that case?
3. With things like case transcripts and codes of conduct, should I print everything and just highlight the relevant bits, or is that likely to irritate the judge? Is it better to just print the relevant sections to submit as evidence, but carry full copies with me on the day in case the judge asks to see it?

jessielicious

4. Where I refer to an exhibit as a 'photograph', does it need to be printed up on proper photographic paper, or is a paper printout acceptable?

KeithP

jessielicious wrote: »

4. Where I refer to an exhibit as a 'photograph', does it need to be printed up on proper photographic paper, or is a paper printout acceptable?

Ordinary paper is ok - as long as it clearly shows what you want it to show.

jessielicious

Is anyone able to help with my other post, #32 please? Thanks in advance.

jessielicious

Good afternoon all, I now have a court date in March and have drafted my witness statement as follows. Please let me have your thoughts:

I am x, defendant in this case

List of exhibits, numbers and description
1. Copy of messages exchanged with tenant of Copenhagen Court, which demonstrate the Defendant’s arrival time of 14:10
2. Copy of Parking Charge Notice showing time issued 14:19
3. Photograph of signage at the site
4. Google Streetview image of entrance to Naomi Street
5. Google Streetview image of area outside Pear Tree Caf!
6. Parking and Property Management Ltd’s photographs of the Defendant’s car, alongside other cars
7. Close up of Google Streetview image showing different paving stones which give the appearance of marked parking bays
8. Relevant section of IPC Code of Practise, relating to grace periods
9. Relevant section of Jopson v Homeguard Services Ltd 9GF0A9E
10. Relevant section of PCMUK v Bull et al B4GF26K6
11. Image of signage in PCMUK v Bull et al B4GF26K6
12. Relevant section of UKPC v Masterson B6QZ4H3R
13. Image of signage in UKPC v Masterson B6QZ4H3R

1. Sequence of Events
1.1 On 17/08/2017 I attended Copenhagen Court, Yeoman Street SE8 by car. I was there at the invitation of a leaseholder tenant of Copenhagen Court, who had sold me an item via social media, for the express purpose of collecting that item.
1.2 I stopped outside the Pear Tree Caf!, Naomi Street, clarified directions with the tenant (exhibit 1), and collected the item from her flat. I had my young child with me which slowed me down slightly, but we did not linger at the site and returned immediately to the car.
1.3 Upon returning to my car I found a Parking Charge Notice attached to the windscreen. Several bystanders told me I had “just missed” the parking attendant, which puts my return time at approximately the same time as the notice was issued (exhibit 2).
1.4 I took a photograph of the signage outside the caf! (exhibit 3), and left the site.

2. Ambiguous appearance of parking location
2.1 The area on Naomi Street where I left my vehicle did not have the obvious appearance of an area where parking was not permitted. For example, there are no red lines or other road markings. As can be seen from images on Google Streetview (exhibit 4, exhibit 5), the area is used by cars for parking/loading. Other cars were present at the same time as my car, as evidenced by Parking and Property Management Ltd’s own photographs (exhibit 6) It is even marked out by different paving stones, giving the appearance of parking bays (exhibit 7). It does not have the appearance of either a roadway or a footpath, which are specified as the places forbidden from parking by the onsite signage (exhibit 3).

3. Code of Practice
3.1 The International Parking Community, of which the Claimant is a member, has a code of practice (exhibit 8) which states “Drivers should be allowed a sufficient amount of time to park and read any signs so they may make an informed decision as to whether or not to remain on the site. Drivers should be allowed a sufficient amount of time to leave a site after a pre-paid or permitted period of parking has expired.” The time between my arrival (exhibit 1) and the Parking Charge Notice being issued (exhibit 2) was 9 minutes, and I left the site shortly afterwards. Although a grace period is not specified in the Code of Practise, 9 minutes with a young child in tow does not seem excessive.

4. Loading and Unloading
4.1 In Jopson v Homeguard Services Ltd 9GF0A9E (exhibit 9) his Honour Judge Harris QC found that “The purported prohibition was upon “parking”, and it is possible to draw a real and sensible distinction between pausing for a few moments or minutes to enable passengers to alight or for awkward or heavy items to be unloaded, and parking in the sense of leaving a car for some significant duration of time. The concept of parking, as opposed to stopping, is that of leaving a car for some duration of time beyond that needed for getting in or out of it, loading or unloading it, and perhaps coping with some vicissitude of short duration, such as changing a wheel in the event of a puncture. Whether a car is parked, or simply stopped, or left for a moment while unloading, or (to take an example discussed in argument) accompanying a frail person inside, must be a question of fact or degree. I think in the end this was agreed. A milkman leaving his float to carry bottles to the flat would not be “parked”. Nor would a postman delivering letters, a wine merchant delivering a case of wine, and nor, I am satisfied, a retailer’s van, or indeed the appellant, unloading an awkward piece of furniture. Any other approach would leave life in the block of flats close to unworkable.”
4.2 The Claimant’s Witness Statement says “As is evidenced by the photographs exhibited to this statement the Defendant cannot be seen to be loading/unloading any items from her vehicle”. Jopson v Homeguard Services Ltd describes a similar scenario:
“On the day in question, an employee of the respondent found the appellant’s car stopped outside the front door of the property with nobody in it. He appears to have photographed the car, waited only a minute, photographed it again and then departed. The evidence of the appellant indicated, and was not contradicted by any other, that she was absent for a few minutes, carrying a desk and some other furniture up to her flat.”
In that case, His Honour Judge Harris QC said “I find as a fact, that while the appellant’s car had been stationary for more than a minute and without its driver for the same period (whatever precisely it was), while she carried in her desk, it was not “parked”. Accordingly, for that reason too, the appellant was not liable to the charge stipulated in the respondent’s notice.”
4.3 The fact that the Claimant did not photograph me in the act of loading my car is irrelevant. I have provided evidence that my brief presence at the site was for the express purpose of loading, and therefore I was not parked and cannot be liable for a parking charge.

5. No Contract Exists
5.1 The signage at the site (exhibit 3) reads, “No parking on estate roadways or footpaths at any time”.
5.2 PCMUK v Bull et al B4GF26K6 (exhibit 10) concerned parking charge notices issued at a site with very similar signage (exhibit 11). District Judge Glen’s assessment of the signage in that case was, “This notice is an absolute prohibition against parking at any time, for any period, on the roadway. It is impossible to construct out of this in any way, either actually or contingently or conditionally, any permission for anyone to park on the roadway. All this is essentially saying is you must not trespass on the roadway. If you do we are giving ourselves, and we are dressing it up in the form of a contract, the right to charge you a sum of money which really would be damages for trespass, assuming of course that the claimant had any interest in the land in order to proceed in trespass. In my judgment, there was never any contractual relationship, whether one categorises it as a licence or simply some form of contractual permission, because that is precisely what PCM were not giving to people who parked on the roadway. For that reason alone I will dismiss this claim.”
5.3 Similarly, in UKPC v Masterson B6QZ4H3R (exhibit 12, exhibit 13), Deputy District Judge Ellington said “I am not able to consider that that is an open offer to contract to park at first sight. If anything, it prohibits unauthorised parking on my reading of it…I am unable to accept that the particular circumstances of this case reveal a contractual licence to park with a contract between the parking manager…and the vehicle owner or driver. The consequences are that…in the absence of a contract between the claimant and the defendant, the cause of action does not lie with the claimant.”
5.4 The signage in this case prohibits parking altogether, thereby giving no invitation to park on certain terms, which would allow a contract to be formed. Since no contract exists between myself and Parking and Property Management Ltd, they can make no claim against me.

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.
Signed
Dated

Coupon-mad

Looks very good to me! :T

IPC Code of Practise

Typo = Practice.

jessielicious

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Looks very good to me! :T



Typo = Practice.

Awesome, thank you x

jessielicious

I have received the following from Gladstones. Is this normal? How significant is it?

We act for the Claima!nt.

In accordance with CP!R 27.9 our Client her!eby gives notice that! it will not be atten!ding the hearing on 1!3/03/2019.

We confirm the court !has been informed and! that we have asked the Court to de!cide the claim in our! Client's absence bas!ed on the evidence su!bmitted.

jessielicious

Can anyone advise re above please?

Le_Kirk

Yes, perfectly normal.