VCS Court Claim

Le_Kirk

5. It is my position that, under the doctrine of promissory estoppel, the Claimant has no standing, or cause of action, to litigate in this matter.

Who promised you what? Have you already included this in your defence? If so that is fine, if not, you are going to have to expand on that point to say something like and I use this ONLY as an example "I was told by the restaurant staff that it was OK to park there." Then of course you will need to supply that evidence.

Coupon-mad

MichaelJordan wrote: »

Evening all,

At the stage now where I have to complete the witness statement having received the notice of allocation hearing.

I was looking to go with the following as a statement and wondered if this suitable. Really looking to keep it simple and the main focus be on the poor lighting conditions on the car park for which I am supplying evidence.

Thanks in advance,

In the County Court at XXXXX
Claim No. XXXXXXXX
Between
(Claimant)
and
(Defendant)

---

Witness Statement

---

1. I am (Defendant), of [Address], [Postcode], as the Defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

2. On [DATE], I visited the a nearby restaurant with a friend, and parked my vehicle registration no, XXXXX in the car park.

3. The timing of our visit was a late evening, arriving approx. 9:00pm and therefore believing the car parking was free as per the city center which promotes free parking after 5:00pm as Exhibit A.

At the time of parking there is no lighting beside any of the signs in the car park and therefore my friend and I exited the car park unaware of the land being private.

Exhibit B shows the car park at the same time the following week. Please note the difference to the images supplied by the claimant which were either during the day or a result of a flash photograph at a closer distance that from what the car was parked.

4. Upon receipt of a parking charge notice from the Claimant, I supplied them with this evidence; however they have elected to pursue this matter via litigation.

5. It is my position that, under the doctrine of promissory estoppel, the Claimant has no standing, or cause of action, to litigate in this matter.

6. 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

A good start and the unlit signs are your main point, but you have completely missed saying anything about the fake added costs, and all the usual stuff seen on every VCS witness statement thread, tearing into THEIR WS where they misquote Vine and talk about Alder v Moore, and Kumari, etc.

If you have not yet received their pile of drivel by post and still have time then WAIT for that! You certainly need to attack their costs AND attach and serve a copy of a large COSTS SCHEDULE for yourself (high hundreds at least, as discussed last week in StubbornGoat's UKCPM court case thread).

In the meantime, search the forum for VCS Kumari and VCS Roch Vine so we don't have to repeat ourselves on every Excel & VCS thread where people seem to think the WS & evidence that has been served is special and new for their case. It won't be!

MichaelJordan

How about the following then, I've looked through the forum and have picked out the individual cases for which they referenced in their own WS.

One exception being 'Barton v Wright Hassall' but I'll be honest I don't fully understand the point nor see the relevance.

---

In the County Court at XXXXX
Claim No. XXXXXXXX
Between
(Claimant)
and
(Defendant)

---

Witness Statement

---

1. I am (Defendant), of [Address], [Postcode], as the Defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

2. On [DATE], I visited the a nearby restaurant with a friend, and my vehicle was parked vehicle registration no, XXXXX in the car park XXXXX.

3. The timing of our visit was a late evening, arriving approx. 9:00pm and therefore believing the car parking was free as per the city center which promotes free parking after 5:00pm as Exhibit XX001.

At the time of parking there was no lighting beside any of the signs in the car park and therefore my friend and I exited the car park unaware of the land being private.

Exhibit XX002 shows the car park at the same time the following week. Please note the difference to the images supplied by the claimant which were either during the day or a result of a flash photograph at a closer distance that from what the car was parked.

4. Upon receipt of a parking charge notice from the Claimant, I supplied them with this evidence; however they have elected to pursue this matter via litigation.

5. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, at Section 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper, in this case £100. The claim includes an additional £60, for which no calculation or explanation is given, and which appears to be an attempt at double recovery. As per claim number F0DP201T District Judge Taylor (Southampton Court, 10th June 2019) the substantial additional charge is an abuse of process.

The Claimant cannot evidence £60 'damages/debt collection letters' expenditure, they are attempting to claim monies that a parking firm are not entitled to recover at all. The authority for this is ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67, where only £85 was recoverable. The Supreme Court stated that the penalty 'parking charge' in these cases is almost entirely profit, so (regardless of whether a Trade Body has been persuaded by its paying members to add a point about 'debt collection costs' into their CoP) the basic costs contained within that business model cannot exist as a separate head of cost.

6. The Claimant cites Vehicle Control Services Limited v Alfred Charles Crutchley [2017], which can be dismissed as it was a case based on “stopping on a roadway where stopping is prohibited”. There is no relevance to this case, where the driver had authority to enter and park in a visitor space at the invite of the Leasehold Tenant residing at Victory Court.

7. The Claimant cites Chaplair Limited V Kumari (2015) EWCA 798 which can immediately be dismissed, in that this was a completely different case involving a signed lease and an amount which had been paid.

8. The Claimant cites Vine V Waltham Forest and, critically, NOT the ratio of the judgment from Roch LJ that provides.

Paragraph 19 of the judgment is quite different from the general presumption that the Claimant invites the Court to make. It is for the Claimant to show that their signage is capable of forming a contract, of sufficient number to be seen, illuminated where the parking occurs at night and clear.

9. 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