Supreme Court Clarifies Deliberate Concealment Gateway For Postponing Limitation

In a significant and much-anticipated judgment, the Supreme Court has clarified the elements that a claimant must establish in order to rely on the "deliberate concealment" gateway in section 32(1)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980 (the Act) and postpone the start of the limitation period: Canada Square Operations Ltd v Potter [2023] UKSC 41.

Section 32(1)(b) of the Act provides that, where any fact relevant to a claimant's right of action has been deliberately concealed by the defendant, limitation does not begin to run until the claimant has discovered the concealment (or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it).

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Court of Appeal's ruling that the claimant could rely on s.32(1)(b) to avoid her claim for recovery of sums paid under a PPI policy being time-barred (see our blog post on the Court of Appeal decision here). However, the judgment given by the president of the Supreme Court, Lord Reed (with whom the