Mr Holton was involved in a long-running dispute over the cost of building work provided by a building services company. Mr Holton had made a counterclaim against the building company for around £1.6 million. He had been given until 20 March to serve his court documents on the other party.
At 3.46pm on 20 March, Mr Holton's solicitors sent the appropriate documents to the solicitors acting for the other party and emailed the documents to the court. Unfortunately, the email address was typed incorrectly and the email was returned as 'undeliverable'.
To add to the legal firm's woes, this error happened late on Friday afternoon which meant that the correct documents were not produced to the court until the following week. The Judge in the case was not sympathetic and dismissed Mr Holton's £1.6m claim.
It is fair to say that the Judge acknowledged that the email error alone would not have caused such a decision but he looked at the bigger picture and, in particular Mr Holton's behaviour, and stated that the email error was the 'culmination' of a course of conduct which the Judge found unacceptable.
Mr Holton had not provided his solicitors with information they required until two days before the 20 March deadline and prior to this, neither he nor his solicitors had chased up missing information.
The Judge said, 'This was a case where, for whatever reason, the provision of the necessary information for the re-pleading of the counterclaim was left until the 11th hour. Those who leave necessary steps until just before the deadline must take the risk of a last-minute slip up.'
Unsurprisingly, this decision has caused a lot of comment in the legal press and, no doubt, the conduct of both Mr Holton and his solicitors will be looked at closely. However, it is an important reminder that it is crucial to ensure that all parties provide information and carry out duties required of them in a timely manner.
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