In a recent judgment, the High Court rejected an application for
default judgment on the basis that the defendant’s
acknowledgement of service, though late, had been filed shortly
before the application: Cunico Resources NV v
Daskalakis [2018] EWHC 3382 (Comm).
The decision turned on the interpretation of CPR 12.3(1), which
sets out the conditions to be satisfied before a claimant may
obtain judgment in default of an acknowledgement of service. This
provision has been the subject of conflicting first instance
decisions and we understand it is under review by the Civil
Procedure Rules Committee.
In the present case, the judge rejected the submission that
default judgment may be granted where an acknowledgement was filed
late, even though it was filed before judgment was entered or even
before the application for default judgment was made. This
contrasts with the most recent decision on the point, in
McDonald & McDonald v D&F Contracts Ltd [2018]
EWHC 1600 (TCC),
