Matthew and Others v. Sedman and Others

United Kingdom

21.05.2021

Limitation

While calculating limitation period in a midnight deadline case, there is complete undivided day following the expiry of deadline which has to be included in the same

The Appellants are the present trustees of a Trust (the “Trust”). They replaced the Respondents. Further the Trust had a share in a company called Cattles plc, a listed company. In the year 2008, in the month of April the company published an annual report and rights issue prospectus containing misleading information. Trading in the shares of the listed company was suspended. Consequently in February, 2011, schemes of arrangement were approved in respect of Cattles plc and a subsidiary namely the Welcome Financial Services Limited (“Welcome”). Due to the misleading information in the annual report and the prospectus, the Trust has a claim against Cattles plc and Welcome under the schemes. However under the scheme of arrangement a valid claim could have been made upto midnight on Thursday 2nd June 2011. However the Respondents did not do the same.

The issue in this case was whether a cause of action accrues at or on the expiry of the midnight hour at the end of a day the following day counts towards the calculation of the limitation period

The Court in the present case unanimously dismissed the appeal and observed that in a midnight deadline case, there is a complete undivided day following the expiry of the deadline which has to be included when calculating the limitation period. The claim against Welcome was initiated out of such time.

Tags : Midnight deadline Limitation period

Share :