Claim Form for parking at Doncaster Airport

Castle

Coupon-mad wrote: »

The reason for using that case and not just PCM v Bull (an ordinary county court decision with no clout) is that, like VCS v Ward and VCS v Crutchley, Jopson is 'persuasive' on the lower courts, being a County Court decision on appeal.

Therefore, you are trying to beat their Top Trumps with your appeal case.

What about Ransomes v Anderson? (also an appeal decision).

Coupon-mad

Good idea Castle, as a forum we don't use that one enough at all:

http://www.parking-prankster.com/case-law.html

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2014/12/ransomes-v-anderson-judgment-available.html

Transcript linked there.

Seems to me that if Mr Ward had used that, the Judge might have been less easily led by VCS/BW Legal, at appeal stage, and seen that where parking/stopping is prohibited, this is only a matter of trespass.

A tort case for a landowner to pursue and recover, not a party PPC under 'contract'.

buziak

Coupon-mad and Castle - thank you for the links and your advice.

Based on what you have written above, this is what I came up with.

_____________+++++++++++++++++ _______________________-



In the County Court at Sheffield
Claim No. XXX
Between

Vehicle Control Services Limited (Claimant)
and
XXX (Defendant)

---

Witness Statement

---

I am XXX, I will say as follows:

I am the Defendant in this matter. I am unrepresented, with no experience of Court procedures. If I do not set out documents in the way that the Claimant may do, I trust the Court will excuse my inexperience.

In this Witness statement, the facts and matters stated are true and within my own knowledge, except where indicated otherwise. Attached to this statement is a paginated bundle of documents marked PD to which I will refer.

1. On a date of alleged contravention, I drove to Doncaster airport when suddenly my car experienced problems with the clutch, shifting gears and I had to pull over immediately to avoid blocking an airport approach road.

2. I experienced sudden problems with the clutch and shifting gears and I had no other option other than stopping in the middle of the lane I was driving, but to steer my vehicle into the zone where it was safe for me to restart my car and drive off.

3. I was focused on shifting the gear and moving off the area I have entered. Therefore I did not have the chance to read the signs that were posted there and that were informing motorists that stopping is prohibited. Even, if I had known about this, this would not prevent me from stopping in the ‘prohibited zone’.

4 Having not heard about this matter in months and upon not receiving parking charge notice from the Claimant, I had no opportunity to supply evidence of the faulty car part and therefore the Claimant have elected to pursue this matter via litigation.

5. It is my position that, the Claimant has no standing, or cause of action, to litigate in this matter. I based it on the case “PCM vs Bull” where defendants were issued parking tickets for parking on private roads with signage stating “no parking at any time”.The tickets were issued by the company Gladstones.

District Judge Glen in his final statement mentioned that “the notice was prohibitive, and didn’t communicate any offer of parking and that landowners may have claim in trespass, but that was not under consideration”.

6. Doncaster-Sheffield airport byelaws should be applicable and considered:

VCS operates under Doncaster-Sheffield airport byelaws Problems I have encountered driving that night, fit the criteria specified in DSA byelaws. Below are the ones that are relevant and supportive of my case:


5. PROHIBITED ACTS ON PARTS OF THE AIRPORT TO WHICH THE ROAD
TRAFFIC ENACTMENTS DO NOT APPLY
The following acts are prohibited on any part of the Airport to which the Road
Traffic Enactments do not apply:

“5 (3) Obstruction:
except in an emergency, leave or park a Vehicle or cause it to wait for a period in excess of the permitted time in an area where the period of waiting is restricted by Notice”

and

“5(12) Parking of Vehicles
without reasonable excuse!park a Vehicle elsewhere than in a place provided for that purpose.


8. Reason for stopping should be considered. In case “Jopson vs. Homeguard Services Ltd” (9GF0A9E), the Defendant stopped for a few minutes to unload some furniture and a desk outside the entrance to the building containing her flat and was issued a parking ticket. In his verdict/statement Judge Harris QC, made the following statement:

“20. […] However, the Shorter Oxford Dictionary has the following: “To leave a vehicle in a carpark or other reserved space” and “To leave in a suitable place until required”. 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. Merely to stop a vehicle cannot be to park it’ otherwise traffic jams would consist of lines of parked cars. “

Based on the above statement, I consider the issues I have encountered with my vehicle as minor vicissitude

9.The terms of the warning sign are of particular importance in this case. The print is larger at the earlier part of notice and gets smaller as one works one’s way through it. But in big letters that are legible to any passing motorist, it says:

“Restricted Zone No Stopping at Any time”

Then in smaller print, legible but only if one positively stopped to read it carefully, one reads the following:

Mobile CCTV & Number Plate Recognition Enforcement cameras in opration. Vehicle keeper details may be requested from the DVLA
Strictly no parking, stopping or waiting on double yellow lines, red route zones or roadways at any time.
£100 Automatic Parking Charge Notice discounted to £60 if payment is received within 14 days of the Parking Charge Notice issue date.

Not only, the small print can not be fully read from the moving vehicle but offer of entering a contract is not displayed by the Claimant.

In case “Ransomes vs Anderson”, the Defendant (Mr. Anderson) went to the industrial estate and after not being able to get into their designated parking area, he parked on the road, on a double yellow line. For which he was issued a parking ticket.

In his judgement the district judge rejected the contract claim on the basis that the noticed was too vague and uncertain to generate contractual liability.

The sign, in question, started with:

“Warning: Private property. Not Trespassing. No Parking. No Stopping. No Waiting. You have entered this private property. You are now subject to the terms and conditions of the land owner listed below”.

District Judge accepted in principle that Mr. Anderson committed a trespass and and that trespass must have caused some loss to the claimant, in terms of expenses incurred, but made no award of damages in relation to it and dismissed the claim.

It is my belief, that by entering the private property and not obeying to the rules displayed on the notice, I did not form any contract with the Claimant because no such contract was presented to me.

In “Ransomes vs Anderson” Distrcit Judge said “the notice was insufficiently clear to constitute a valid contractual offer capable of acceptance by conduct. […} Although the doctrine of acceptance by conduct, on the basis of the terms on a notice in a parking place or similar zone, is an obviously right, valuable and useful one, it is an essential minimum that the contract be sufficiently simple and clear that the motorist is in no doubt before he performs the accepting conduct what he is letting himself in for. […] .. the district judge was plainly right to say that this notice, in contractual terms, was too vague and uncertain to have the requisite effect.



I invite the Court to dismiss this claim in its entirety, and to award my costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14.

Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.

Signature
Date

Coupon-mad

You need a point #7 which could be:

7. This Claimant may try to persuade the court using the perverse decision in VCS v Ward, which can be fully distinguished and is far from persuasive when scrutinised. In that case, at appeal, the Defendant did not appear and the case reportedly ran completely against the interests of the victim consumer, such that the Judge even lamented the dreadful position he had been steered towards by this Claimant's legal rep who, it seems, effectively ambushed the court with a case not first raised at the original hearing. In any event, the VCS v Ward case involved a business park and has no application to an Airport case, where the byelaws lay the facts and rules out (very helpfully for the court, and fully in accordance with the Consumer Rights Act 2015) that an emergency such as breakdown, is a 'reasonable excuse' clearly anticipated by the Airport owners to be exempt conduct, and not a contravention at all. This Claimant has misapplied the byelaws rules and twisted them for their own profit.

And your lower paragraphs all need numbering.

buziak

Case in court in August.

Received a Witness Statement from the Claimant.

I am happy to post it here but since I am a new member I can not post any photos or links.
Any chance to go around this?

Le_Kirk

When you have decided which image hosting site to use, they will give you a URL, just post it thus (using imgur as an example): -
hxxps://imgur.co.uk/nnnxxx and one of the regulars will correct it for you.

nosferatu1001

The fact you have THEIR WS means preusmably yours is done?
What is your deadline?

buziak

Le_Kirk: Thank you. Will update it shortly.,

nosferatu1001: Mine is below. The case is on the 23rd of August.

In the County Court at Sheffield
Claim No. XXX
Between

Vehicle Control Services Limited (Claimant)
and
XXX (Defendant)

---

Witness Statement

---

I am XXX, I will say as follows:

I am the Defendant in this matter. I am unrepresented, with no experience of Court procedures. If I do not set out documents in the way that the Claimant may do, I trust the Court will excuse my inexperience.

In this Witness statement, the facts and matters stated are true and within my own knowledge, except where indicated otherwise. Attached to this statement is a paginated bundle of documents marked PD to which I will refer.

1. On a date of alleged contravention, I drove to Doncaster airport when suddenly my car experienced problems with the clutch, shifting gears and I had to pull over immediately to avoid blocking an airport approach road.

2. I experienced sudden problems with the clutch and shifting gears and I had no other option other than stopping in the middle of the lane I was driving, but to steer my vehicle into the zone where it was safe for me to restart my car and drive off.

3. I was focused on shifting the gear and moving off the area I have entered. Therefore I did not have the chance to read the signs that were posted there and that were informing motorists that stopping is prohibited. Even, if I had known about this, this would not prevent me from stopping in the ‘prohibited zone’.

4 Having not heard about this matter in months and upon not receiving parking charge notice from the Claimant, I had no opportunity to supply evidence of the faulty car part and therefore the Claimant have elected to pursue this matter via litigation.

5. It is my position that, the Claimant has no standing, or cause of action, to litigate in this matter. I based it on the case “PCM vs Bull” where defendants were issued parking tickets for parking on private roads with signage stating “no parking at any time”.The tickets were issued by the company Gladstones.

District Judge Glen in his final statement mentioned that “the notice was prohibitive, and didn’t communicate any offer of parking and that landowners may have claim in trespass, but that was not under consideration”.

6. Doncaster-Sheffield airport byelaws should be applicable and considered:

VCS operates under Doncaster-Sheffield airport byelaws Problems I have encountered driving that night, fit the criteria specified in DSA byelaws. Below are the ones that are relevant and supportive of my case:


5. PROHIBITED ACTS ON PARTS OF THE AIRPORT TO WHICH THE ROAD
TRAFFIC ENACTMENTS DO NOT APPLY
The following acts are prohibited on any part of the Airport to which the Road
Traffic Enactments do not apply:

“5 (3) Obstruction:
except in an emergency, leave or park a Vehicle or cause it to wait for a period in excess of the permitted time in an area where the period of waiting is restricted by Notice”

and

“5(12) Parking of Vehicles
without reasonable excuse!park a Vehicle elsewhere than in a place provided for that purpose.


8. Reason for stopping should be considered. In case “Jopson vs. Homeguard Services Ltd” (9GF0A9E), the Defendant stopped for a few minutes to unload some furniture and a desk outside the entrance to the building containing her flat and was issued a parking ticket. In his verdict/statement Judge Harris QC, made the following statement:

“20. […] However, the Shorter Oxford Dictionary has the following: “To leave a vehicle in a carpark or other reserved space” and “To leave in a suitable place until required”. 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. Merely to stop a vehicle cannot be to park it’ otherwise traffic jams would consist of lines of parked cars. “

Based on the above statement, I consider the issues I have encountered with my vehicle as minor vicissitude

9.The terms of the warning sign are of particular importance in this case. The print is larger at the earlier part of notice and gets smaller as one works one’s way through it. But in big letters that are legible to any passing motorist, it says:

“Restricted Zone No Stopping at Any time”

Then in smaller print, legible but only if one positively stopped to read it carefully, one reads the following:

Mobile CCTV & Number Plate Recognition Enforcement cameras in opration. Vehicle keeper details may be requested from the DVLA
Strictly no parking, stopping or waiting on double yellow lines, red route zones or roadways at any time.
£100 Automatic Parking Charge Notice discounted to £60 if payment is received within 14 days of the Parking Charge Notice issue date.

Not only, the small print can not be fully read from the moving vehicle but offer of entering a contract is not displayed by the Claimant.

In case “Ransomes vs Anderson”, the Defendant (Mr. Anderson) went to the industrial estate and after not being able to get into their designated parking area, he parked on the road, on a double yellow line. For which he was issued a parking ticket.

In his judgement the district judge rejected the contract claim on the basis that the noticed was too vague and uncertain to generate contractual liability.

The sign, in question, started with:

“Warning: Private property. Not Trespassing. No Parking. No Stopping. No Waiting. You have entered this private property. You are now subject to the terms and conditions of the land owner listed below”.

District Judge accepted in principle that Mr. Anderson committed a trespass and and that trespass must have caused some loss to the claimant, in terms of expenses incurred, but made no award of damages in relation to it and dismissed the claim.

It is my belief, that by entering the private property and not obeying to the rules displayed on the notice, I did not form any contract with the Claimant because no such contract was presented to me.

In “Ransomes vs Anderson” Distrcit Judge said “the notice was insufficiently clear to constitute a valid contractual offer capable of acceptance by conduct. […} Although the doctrine of acceptance by conduct, on the basis of the terms on a notice in a parking place or similar zone, is an obviously right, valuable and useful one, it is an essential minimum that the contract be sufficiently simple and clear that the motorist is in no doubt before he performs the accepting conduct what he is letting himself in for. […] .. the district judge was plainly right to say that this notice, in contractual terms, was too vague and uncertain to have the requisite effect.



I invite the Court to dismiss this claim in its entirety, and to award my costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14.

Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.

Signature
Date

Coupon-mad

Show us theirs, every page if you can. Keen to see it again (template relying on all the usual cases, no doubt, but always worth shooting down.

Your WS need every paragraph numbering, every one.

And tell the Judge that both 'Jopson' and 'Ransomes' are persuasive appeal decisions which already existed and which fly in the face of the recent VCS v Ward flawed appeal decision, where a Judge was wrongly led by VCS about a brief stop, and was misled to wrongly consider Beavis which has no such application in these different fact cases (only in cases of similar facts - retail park overstays with the same clear signs). And the Defendant failed to adduce Jopson or Ransomes nor even appear at the appeal hearing to fight his side, so VCS v Ward should not carry the same persuasive weight compared to Jopson and Ransomes where the matters regarding 'stopping' as opposed to parking and agreeing a contract, were more thoroughly considered with all parties present.

waamo

Just a minor point but in 5 you say "the tickets were issued by the company Gladstones". Gladstones are solicitors who regularly represent parking companies. They don't actually issue tickets.