Summary
Applications for strike out are being increasingly used in the
civil litigation process as a means to test, at an early stage, the
courts view of the merits of a claim which, as yet, is not fully
tested and where the entire evidential basis of a claim has yet to
be demonstrated.
In the recent judgment in Louis & otrs v Finegold &
antr1, delivered on February 27 2013, the First
Deemster, Deemster Doyle exercising the courts jurisdiction to
strike a claim out where it considered that the case against the
applicant was "hopeless and had no reasonable prospect of
succeeding at trial."
The law
It has long been established by common law that an application
to strike out a claim should not be granted unless the court is
certain that the claim is bound to fail2. Since the
Rules of the High Court of Justice 2009 were introduced, the court
draws its power to strike out a claim from Rule 7.3, which states
that the court may strike out a claim if it appears that
