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Court Defence (PEL/Gladstone) Fluttering ticket case

I've drafted up a defence and submitted below, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Background to claim: ticket face-down on car dashboard, received fine from PEL, followed by subsequent letters. Appealed and failed. 2 years later received letters from Gladstones and eventually court letter from Northampton county court.

Preliminary Matters
1. The Claimant has not complied with pre-court protocol. And as an example as to why this prevents a full defence being filed at this time, a parking charge can be for trespass, breach of contract or a contractual charge. All these are treated differently in law and require a different defence. The wording of any contract will naturally be a key element in this matter, and a copy of the alleged contract has never been provided to the Defendant.

1.1 The Particulars of Claim do not meet the requirements of Practice Direction 16 7.5 as there is nothing which specifies how the terms were breached and fail to fulfil CPR Part 16.4 because it does not include a statement of the facts on which the claimant relies, only referring to a Parking Charge Notice with no further description; it fails to establish a cause of action which would enable the Defendant to prepare a specific defence; are not clear and concise as is required by CPR Part 16.4 1(a).

1.2 The Claimant and their solicitor are known to be a serial litigants and issuer of speculative claims, using template particulars of claim which arise from an automated template, with no due diligence.

1.3 In C3GF84Y2 (Mason, Plymouth County Court) [2016] the judge struck out the claim brought by KBT Cornwall Ltd as Gladstones Solicitors had not submitted proper Particulars of Claim, and similar reasons were cited by District Judge Cross of St Albans County Court on 20/09/16 where a claim was struck out without a hearing, due to Gladstones' template particulars being incoherent, failing to comply with CPR16.4, and ''providing no facts that could give rise to any apparent claim in law''.

1.4 On the 27th July 2016 DJ Anson sitting at Preston County Court ruled that the very similar parking charge particulars of claim were deficient and failed to meet CPR 16.4 and PD 16 paragraphs 7.3 – 7.6. He ordered the Claimant in that case to file new particulars which they failed to do and so the claim was struck out.

2. The Defendant appealed the Parking Charge Notice on XX/XX/XXXX explaining what had happened and including a copy of the ticket displayed on the day. The serial number on the front of the ticket in the defendant’s photo in fact matching the serial number on the claimant’s photo of the reverse side of the ticket: XXXXXXXX. This provided the Claimant with clear evidence that the defendant acted in good faith and made all reasonable endeavours to comply with the terms and condition (“T&C”) - as far as they were understood.

2.1 This was an opportunity for the Claimant to act reasonably and cancel the charge.

2.2 Not only was the charge was not cancelled but the appeal was not acknowledged by the Claimant and no response was received.

2.3 The above constitutes a direct breach of Practice Direction pre-action conduct and protocols; specifically - paragraph 3 (Objectives), and 8 (Settlement and ADR). As such the court's attention is drawn to paragraphs 13 - 16.

2.4 The above is also a direct breach of the International Parking Community ("IPC") Code of Practice ("CoP"), Part B, Section 6. The CoP is effectively regulation for the private parking industry, as found by the supreme court judges in the Beavis Case.

3. On the basis of the above, the Defendant requests the court strike out the claim for want of a cause of action and disregard of pre-court protocol.
3.1 Alternatively, the Defendant asks that the Claimant is required to file Particulars which comply with Practice Directions and include at least the following information;
a) Whether the matter is being brought for trespass, breach of contract or a contractual charge, and an explanation as to the exact nature of the charge
b) A copy of any contract it is alleged was in place (photo of signage at the car park on the day in question)
c) Whether the Claimant is acting as Agent or Principal, together with a list of documents they will rely on in this matter
d) If charges over and above the initial charge are being claimed, the basis on which this is being claimed
o Note that a SAR request was submitted to the claimant, although the Claimant did reply, this particular request was not acknowledged: ‘evidence of a payment to a debt collector (Gladstone Solicitors) re: £60 addition to the PCN’.
e) If Interest charges are being claimed, the basis on which this is being claimed

3.2 Once these Particulars have been filed, the Defendant asks for reasonable time to file another defence.

Background
4. I am X, the Defendant, and the authorised registered keeper and the driver in question at the time of the alleged incident.

The Defendant denies liability for the entirety of the claim for the following reasons:

5. A ticket was paid for and displayed so all details could be seen, and was in place the right way up when the car was locked and left parked. The Defendant has no knowledge of the point at which the ticket flipped over or why, but made reasonable endeavours, and complied by conduct.

5.1 The Defendant cannot be responsible for the possibility that:
a) A gust of wind may have later flipped the flimsy paper over, despite the windows & doors being locked.
b) The employee of the Claimant may have caused the ticket to flip over, perhaps accidentally when leaning across the car or pushing between vehicles. No suggestion of foul play is intended but this is a known predatory tactic among this industry.
c) A passer-by may have leaned on the car, when squeezing between the small bays to get to their own vehicle.

5.2 None of the above scenarios are within a driver's control (The driver was by that time, absent from the location) and it is evident that someone else – or a factor outside anyone's control – was to blame. This appears to have been a case of casus fortuitus "chance occurrence, unavoidable accident", which is a doctrine that essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties renders the contract frustrated.

5.3 Notwithstanding the above, the flimsiness of the ticket certainly played its part, and that is within the control of this industry, who are well aware of the problem, which even have a name attributed: ''fluttering tickets''. Because they profit from drivers' misfortune caused by their own tickets' inability to withstand British weather, it is averred that this Claimant wilfully decided not to address this issue (e.g. by adding sticky backing to the ticket).

5.4 The Court is invited to consider the fairness of the position in this case, giving due consideration to the flimsiness of the piece of paper provided, which appears to cause significant imbalance in the rights of a consumer, to their detriment.
''A term or notice is deemed to be ‘unfair’ if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract to the detriment of the consumer. This is to be determined by taking into account the nature of the subject matter of the contract, and by reference to all the circumstances existing when the term was agreed and to all of the other terms of the contract or of any other contract on which it depends [...] ''An unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer.''(s.62 Consumer Rights Act).

5.5 The term, ‘A valid ticket must be purchased to park on this site and be displayed clearly in your front windscreen’ in particular the meaning of ‘displayed clearly’ is not transparent per Section 68 of the CRA 2015. Where contract terms have different meanings Section 69 of the CRA 2015 provides a statutory form of the contra proferentem rule, such that the consumer must be given the benefit of the doubt.

5.6 A valid ticket was displayed in the front windscreen of the Defendant’s vehicle. If the Claimant wanted to impose a different term to say display the ticket face-up then they should have drafted clear terms to that effect.

5.7 It is not disputed that the ticket gave the Defendant a licence to park for the entire day. The ticket was displayed on the dashboard at all times. This will be demonstrated by the Claimant’s own evidence.

5.8 The Claimant’s evidence will show the back of the ticket has a serial number of XXXXXXXX. The Defendant’s evidence will also show the front of the ticket has a serial number of XXXXXXXX.

Limited contract
6. The signage on this site is inadequate to form a contract to pay £100 or any sum at all. It is barely legible, making it difficult to read and it is not believed that such terms were proclaimed with the tariffs at the machine. Part E, Schedule 1 of the Code of Practice of the International Parking Community (of which ES is a member), clearly states that “Text should be of such a size and in a font that can be easily read by a motorist having regard to the likely position of the motorist in relation to the sign.”

Locus standi
7. The Claimant has failed to establish their legal right to bring a claim either as the landholder or the agent of the landholder and therefore would have no locus standi to bring this case per Tweddle v Atkinson [1861] 1B &S 393, as confirmed by the House of Lords in Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v Selfridge & Co Ltd.

7.1 Parking Eye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67 showed that the Claimant does not have a wider legitimate interest extending beyond the prospect of damages, as their interest is only limited to the recovery of compensation for the alleged breach of contract, and no commercial interest has engaged as to the control of parking as the Defendant had paid for a licence to park.

No advertising consent for signage
8. In this matter, the Claimant does not have advertisement consent in relation to its parking signage on the land in question (which are classed as “advertisements” under the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 (as amended). This is a criminal offence under Regulation 30 of those Regulations. Accordingly, as a matter of public policy the principle ex dolo malo non oritur action should apply – namely, the Claimant should not be allowed to found a cause of action on an immoral or an illegal act (in this case the unlawful signage). The rationale for this is set out in the case of Holman v Johnson (1775) 1 Cowp 341 and was reaffirmed in RTA (Business Consultants) Ltd v Bracewell [2015] EWHC 630 (QB) (12 March 2015). The Defendant also relies on Andre Agassi v S Robinson (HM Inspector of Taxes) [2005] EWCA Civ 1507.

8.1 In addition to the criminal offence committed by the Claimant, it is in breach of various statutory and regulatory provisions set out in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (Regulation 3 – a breach of which is an offence under Regulation 5), the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (Sections 62 and 68 and Schedule 2) and the Consumer Contract (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (Regulation 13).

Claimant is seeking a penalty and inflated costs
10. The Claimant seeks £160 which is an extravagant and unconscionable penalty, and therefore unenforceable particularly because the Defendant has shown he did purchase a valid ticket and the Claimant has suffered no loss, and because any breach of contract (which, for the avoidance of doubt, is denied) was de minimis.

10.1 £60 of the £160 ‘parking charge’ (for which liability is denied) the Claimant has untruthfully presented as contractual charges, which amounts to double charging, which the PoFA 2012 Schedule 4 specifically disallows. The defendant lodged a SAR request to the claimant requesting: ‘evidence of a payment to a debt collector (Gladstone Solicitors) re: £60 addition to the PCN’. But no such evidence was provided.

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

10.3 There is no possible commercial justification for such a trivial error for the Claimant. The Beavis v ParkingEye [2015] Judges at the Court of Appeal stated there was a commercial justification as it was free car park and needed to prevent overstays of the free 2 hour stay. Whereas in this case the car park is a Pay and Display car park where revenue is gained as people need to pay to park there for an agreed period of time.

10.4 The Claimant has claimed a £50 legal representative’s cost on the claim form, despite being well aware that CPR 27.14 does not permit such charges to be recovered in the Small Claims Court. The Defendant also has the reasonable belief that the charges have not been invoiced and/or paid and that due to the sparse particulars the £50 claimed for filing the claim has not been incurred either. This appears to be an attempt at double recovery as a way to inflate the value of the claim. In the alternative, the Claimant is put to strict proof to show how this cost has been incurred.

10.5 The £50 solicitor cost was disputed in the test case of ParkingEye v Beavis and Wardley. HHJ Moloney refused to award the £50. His award was; “JUDGMENT FOR CLAIMANT FOR £85 PLUS ISSUE COSTS”. These were presumably the £25 filing fee and £25 hearing fee. The £50 was also struck out by DJ Sparrow on 19 August 2015 in ParkingEye v Mrs S, claim number B9FC508F.

10.6 I deny the Claimant is entitled to any interest charges.

11. The Defendant invites the court to strike out the claim for the above grounds.

I believe the facts stated in this defence are true.

Comments

  • KeithP
    KeithP Posts: 41,296 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I thought you would've got the message last time you started a new thread.

    Please copy your post above as a reply on your existing thread, and then edit the text of you post above to say something like;
    Duplicate thread - please ignore.


    Thank you for your cooperation.
  • Neil_j
    Neil_j Posts: 11 Forumite
    do us all a favor and jump off a bridge mate

    thanks for your cooperation
  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,180 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I'll just sit back and watch...
  • Umkomaas
    Umkomaas Posts: 43,480 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Neil_j wrote: »
    do us all a favor and jump off a bridge mate

    thanks for your cooperation
    wealdroam wrote: »
    I'll just sit back and watch...

    I think most of the regulars will too - sitting on their hands!
    Please note, we are not a legal advice forum. I personally don't get involved in critiquing court case Defences/Witness Statements, so unable to help on that front. Please don't ask. .

    I provide only my personal opinion, it is not a legal opinion, it is simply a personal one. I am not a lawyer.

    Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

    Private Parking Firms - Killing the High Street
  • Le_Kirk
    Le_Kirk Posts: 24,731 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Another good way to get help and advice is to thank posters for their contribution and engage positively. Of course, your approach might work, let's see ..............................
  • beamerguy
    beamerguy Posts: 17,587 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Err .... is this thread about Brexit then ???
This discussion has been closed.
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