By Letter dated 10th August 2023 Counsel for the Plaintiffs Stephen Wilson K.C applied pursuant to Order 6 rule 8, Order 3, rule 5 and Order 2 rule 1 for an order extending the validity of the Writ in CL 78/2022 which was issued on the 15th of August 2022, for an additional period of 12 months. The application for extension of the validity of the Writ was heard on the 19th of June 2024 and judgment was reserved.
Held: On the 25th of June 2024 an Order was granted by this court extending the validity of the Writ as follows; “If and insofar as the Court determines (upon the hearing of the Jurisdiction Challenge or any appeal therefrom) that the Writ has not already been validly served on the Defendants (or any of them), the validity of the Writ is hereby extended for a further 12 months from 15 August 2023 so that it is valid for the purposes of service until 14 August 2024.”
I find that the prejudice or hardship on the Plaintiffs if the validity of the writ is allowed to lapse outweighs that of the Defendants. This is primarily due to the fact that in my view the Plaintiffs have not been tardy, lazy or negligent in propelling this claim forward.
My reasons for granting this protective extension of validity are as follows:
a. To prevent an instance where both the validity of the writ and limitation period has expired leaving the Plaintiff in a position where the Writ cannot be served.
b. The hardship of not extending the validity of the writ on the Plaintiffs outweighs that of the Defendants in this matter.
c. The extension does not prejudice any defence which the Defendants may have.
d. The Plaintiff worked with speed and dispatch in the service of the Writ on all Defendants.
e. Acknowledgments of Service was entered for all Defendants.
f. The jurisdictional challenge is tentatively estimated to be heard in March of 2025.
g. In the event that the Defendants are successful, the option is available to them to apply to set aside this extension.
For these reasons I find it prudent within the inherent jurisdiction of the court and in the interests of justice to grant a conditional extension retrospectively to 14th August 2024.