Appeal of County Court Judgement

[ParsleyDumpling]

Hi All,

I have followed this site for years and am now taking the plunge!

My husband was sued last year for repair to an old Steinway baby grand piano he had sold three years previously. It was sold originally with a two year guarantee against major defects. Long story short; we live on the Wirral and the hearing was in London, at the time my husband was too ill to make the journey to London for the original hearing. We emailed the court and the defendant to say he couldn't attend, after speaking to the court by phone we were told to send our defence by email, which we did. Unknown to us the court email system did not recognise our email address and consequently the Judge didn't receive our defence. We lost the case because as far as the court was concerned we had failed to follow it's proceedures.

We contacted a solicitor and with his help applied to the court for my husaband to attend the settlement hearing some months later to explain why he had not attended originally and why we were refusing the repair to the piano. At this hearing the Judge realising there was more to the case than he was being led to believe set the original judgement aside and set a new hearing for December of last year. We won the case in December.

In January of this year we received a letter from the court to inform us that the defendant was seeking an appeal to have the orginal judgement re-instated, his written application to appeal the judgement had been denied. He was then allowed to make an oral application which was in August, he also lost this application.

My question, (if I haven't already bored you to death!) can the defendant now do anything else to harrass us? He has owned the piano for a total of four years now and is the sort of person who does not like to be told that he was at fault, and that all the problems with the piano were down to his own ignorance, negligence and arrogance.

Thank you for taking the time to read my question and hopefully give me a definitive answer.

[factor-fiction]

Some people become obsessed with these things and never give up, but I'm not sure where he can go next. I suppose he may try going to the press or starting some sort of campaign (Facebook etc) against you

[dotty.]

is he making personal contact with you ? he should be communicating through his and your solicitor surely, but he also must have more money than sense to keep banging away at it (sorry)

[bednobs]

i don't think there is anything he can do in law. However, there is nothing stopping him harrassing you, sullying your name etc

[ParsleyDumpling]

Hi,

Thanks for getting back so promptly. I was pretty sure he couldn't do anything else legally! and to be honest he has only emailed us with regard to the case. He certainly does have more money than sense because he could he used it to get the piano repaired, so to the best of my knowledge he is no further forward than he was when he started this. Oh dear!!!!

[tonywiltshire]

Firstly if you are based in the Wirral and the plaintiff in London the plaintiff is not allowed to pick and choose his forum. The jurisdiction of the county court has a geographical limitation most proceedings should commence in the area in which you live or carry on business or for the county court in the district where the cause of action arose, though default actions may commence in any county court.
If the plaintiff has now exhausted his legal remedies there is little they can do legally if you believe you are being subjected to conduct causing mental anguish or distress your remedy is the Protection of Harassment Act 1997.

[ParsleyDumpling]

Tony,

The venue should have been moved up here automatically but unfourtunately for whatever reason it wasn't. After the initial judgement was set aside and my husband was well enough to travel (he is now on morphine for pain relief), he actually enjoyed the journey down to London. Altough he did have to leave home at about 5.30am to catch the 7.00am Lime Street to Euston to attend a 10.00am hearing. The Judges involved in the August and December hearings were very good pianists (one was concert grade) and had a very good understanding of the case, and the defendant! they were quite incredulous that he had taken the case so far.

Since the he lost his application to appeal in August 2012 we have not heard from him (he only emails court documents, witness statements etc. as we were both representing ourselves), but I just had this nagging doubt that maybe he could try another route.

Thank you for your advice though.