May, 2014 | A blog about Wirral Council, Wirral Council's councillors & officers

EXCLUSIVE: What was the defence used in Wirral Council’s court case to evict the Fernbank Farm tenants?

This continues from yesterday’s blog post EXCLUSIVE: How Wirral Council’s court case to evict the Fernbank Farm tenants began on the 8th August 2013. As with the documents published yesterday, the thumbnails should link to higher resolution versions of each image. The text in each document is copied below each thumbnail.

Part 1 – The Acknowledgement of Service Form (Part 8 Claim)
Part 2 – Defence Form
Part 3 – Amended Defence
Part 4 – Court Order (29th November 2013)
Part 5 – Possession Order (February 2014)

The Acknowledgement of Service Form (Part 8 Claim)

The only boxes filled out on page 1 are “In the BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT” and “Claim No 3BI05210”.

Claim No 3BI05210

A box is ticked in Section D “I object to the Claimant issuing under this procedure”. Under “My reasons for objecting are” the following is handwritten “WE HAVE NEVER GAVE UP OR SAID WE WOULDN’T RENEW OUR LEASE. WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MR DICKINSON, TO GET BACK TO US. AS FAR AS WE ARE AWARE WE WERE WAITING FOR HIS REPLYS INVOLVING OUR LEASE AND TO THIS DAY HAVE STILL HAD NO REPLY FROM MR DICKINSON, AND WE ARE COMPLETELY SHOCKED BY THESE LETTERS.”

In Section F “Full name of the defendant filing this acknowledgement” is handwritten “VALERIE PATRICIA WOODLEY”.

In Section G “I am duly authorised by the defendant to sign this statement” is crossed out and underneath “*(I believe)(The defendant believes) that the facts stated on this form are true.” is the signature of Valerie P Woodley.

In a box for the date 17th August 2013 is entered.

The home address, postcode and phone number of the defendant are redacted before being published.

Defence Form

Claim No 3BI05210

In the box “I dispute the the claimant’s claim because:-” is written “As we are aware we are still waiting for Mr Dickinson to reply so we could, renew our lease.”

In the Statement of Truth “The defendant(s) believe(s))” is crossed out but it is unsigned. The defendant’s date of birth is redacted. The defendant’s full name is given as “VALERIE PATRICIA WOODLEY”. The defendant’s home address, postcode and telephone number are redacted.

Amended Defence

The Court Manager
Birkenhead County Court
76 Hamilton Street
Birkenhead
Merseyside
CH41 5EN

Dear Sirs

RE: Claim Number 3BI05210, WBC v Carol Eileen Kane

Please find enclosed the Defendant’s Amended Defence in triplicate.

We can confirm that we have served the Claimant with a copy of the same.

Yours faithfully,

(signature of Valerie Woodley and Carol E Kane)

Carol Eileen Kane

There is a stamp of “BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT COUNTER 04 DEC 2013 A/C 21283 £ _____ Section ______”

IN THE BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT

Claim No: 3BI05210
BETWEEN:
Wirral Borough Council
Claimant
-v-
Carol Eileen Kane
Defendant
____________________
AMENDED DEFENCE
____________________

Document is stamped BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT COUNTER 04 DEC 2013 A/C 21283 £ ______ Section _______ .

IN THE BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT

Claim no. 3BI05210

BETWEEN:

Wirral Borough Council

Claimant

-v-

Carol Eileen Kane

Defendant

__________________________

AMENDED DEFENCE

__________________________

1. The contents of the Particular of Claim is neither admitted nor denied and the Claimant is put to strict proof in regards to the statements contained therein

2. The Claimant did make known to the Defendant that discussions were on going in relation to renewal of her lease, both explicitly and implicitly, insofar as an employee, servant or agent of the Claimant, told the Defendant ‘not to worry’ and thereafter failed to communicate intention of possession.

3. The Defendant relied upon the representations of the Claimant ‘not to worry,’ insofar as the Defendant continued peaceable enjoyment of the land which was invested in utilising the Defendant’s financial resources..

4. The Claimant has reneged on previous representations and failed to communicate its instructions to the Defendant adequately if at all.

DATED this the 03^rd day of December 2013.

STATEMENT OF TRUTH

I believe/ that the facts contained within the Amended Defence are true.

(Signed) (signature of Valerie Woodley) (signature of Carol E Kane)

(Dated) 4th December 2013

Claimant

To: the District Judge

And To: the Defendant

Court Order (29th November 2013)

General Form of Judgement or Order

In the BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT
Claim Number	3BI05210
Date	29 November 2013

WIRRAL BOROUGH COUNCIL	1^st Claimant Ref
CAROL EILEEN KANE	1^st Defendant Ref
VALERIE PATRICIA WOODLEY	2^nd Defendant Ref

Before Deputy District Judge Grosscurth sitting at Birkenhead County Court, 76 Hamilton Street, Birkenhead, Merseyside, CH41 5EN.

Upon the Court’s own motion

IT IS ORDERED THAT:-

1. The Claimant shall include in the indexed bundle pursuant to paragraph 4 of the order of 21st November 2013 a chronology setting out all relevant dates relating to the granting of the lease, notices given and dates by when action persuant thereto should have occurred.

This order has been made by the court of its own initiative under CPR 3.3. Any party affected by this order may apply to have it set aside, varied, or stayed within 7 days of the date on which the order is served on that party.

Dated 28 November 2013

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

The court office at Birkenhead County Court, 76 Hamilton Street, Birkenhead, Merseyside, CH41 5EN is open between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm Monday to Friday. When corresponding with the court, please address forms or letters to the Court Manager and quote the claim number. Tel: 0151 666 5800. Fax: 0151 666 5873

N24 General Form of Judgement or Order

Produced by: N Swann

CJR065

Possession Order (February 2014)

General Form of Judgement or Order>

In the BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT
Claim Number	3BI05210
Date	17 February 2014

WIRRAL BOROUGH COUNCIL	1^st Claimant Ref
CAROL EILEEN KANE	1^st Defendant Ref
VALERIE PATRICIA WOODLEY	2^nd Defendant Ref

Before District Judge Woodburn sitting at Birkenhead County Court, 76 Hamilton Street, Birkenhead, Merseyside, CH41 5EN.

Upon hearing Counsel for the Claimant

IT IS ORDERED THAT:-

1) The Defendant’s shall by 4.00pm on the 13th February 2015 deiliver up possession of land situate at Sandbrook Lane, Moreton, Wirral.

2) No order as to costs

Dated 13 February 2014

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

N24 General Form of Judgement or Order

Produced by: N Swann

CJR065

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EXCLUSIVE: How Wirral Council’s court case to evict the Fernbank Farm tenants began on the 8th August 2013

Part 1 Why am I redacting parts of court documents before publishing them?
Part 2 N5 Claim Form for possession of property – How Wirral Council started its claim for a possession order for Fernbank Farm
Part 3 Particulars of Claim
Part 4 The map attached to the Particulars of Claim

Why am I redacting parts of court documents before publishing them?

Before I start with a blog post about how Wirral Council’s claim for a possession order for the land known as Fernbank Farm in Sandbrook Lane I am going to explain why I have redacted certain details from these documents before publishing them as well as the arguments for and against disclosing them without redactions. The general principles behind this I wrote about yesterday in Getting information about Fernbank Farm is made unusually difficult; what are they trying to hide?.

Attached to the particulars of claim is a map showing the land this case is about edged in red (although on the black and white photocopy I have it’s edged in black). Unfortunately the map is crown copyright and although Wirral Council have a licence to publish it I don’t, therefore the map and compass are blacked out from that document. I will however provide a description of where the land is and a link to a map. The title on the map lists it as being at Sandbrook Lane, Upton. Most people would regard it as being in Moreton, not Upton as it’s North of the M53 Junction 2 spur and the particulars of claim refer to it as being in Moreton.

To the documents that started the claim (the N5 form, particulars of claim and map) I have made two other redactions. The claim form itself has the home addresses of both defendants. However the request for a possession order does not relate to either of their home addresses, but to Fernbank Farm in Sandbrook Lane. During the fast track trial in February 2014 both defendants gave evidence from the witness stand and stated their home address in open court (at a public hearing) in front of about fifty people.

Personally I have no problem with my home address being in the public domain, as when you stand in an election it becomes public knowledge. My attitudes on privacy are therefore probably different to most of the population! Neither of the defendants are “public figures” and in my view therefore are entitled to a certain degree of privacy with such information. The case has nothing to do with their home addresses as it is to do purely with them being signatories to a lease with Wirral Council for Fernbank Farm.

Arguments in favour of disclosure of the defendant’s home addresses would be that these details have been given in open court and it would allow those reading this to contact them directly. However both have Facebook profiles, which can be used if people wish to contact them directly. If either Mrs Kane or Mrs Woodley are reading this and are happy with their home address/es being published my contact details are here.

Search engines cannot properly index or read scanned images, therefore the text of what is in these documents is included below it. As usual with images I post on this blog, a thumbnail is used and you can click on the thumbnail for a higher resolution image.

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N5 Claim Form for possession of property – How Wirral Council started its claim for a possession order for Fernbank Farm

This is a link to the current (2014) blank version of the N5 claim form (for possession of property) which has minor changes to the 2013 version used by Wirral Council in their claim.

Claim Form for possession of property

In the BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT
Claim No.	3BI05210

Claimant
(name(s) and address(es))
WIRRAL METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL
TOWN HALL
BRIGHTON STREET
WALLASEY
WIRRAL
CH44 8ED

Defendant(s)
(name(s) and address(es))
1) CAROL EILEEN KANE 2) VALERIE PATRICIA WOODLEY
(address redacted) (address redacted)
The claimant is claiming possession of:

land at Sandbrook Lane, Moreton, Wirral shown as the land edged in red on the attached plan.

which (~~includes~~) (does not include) residential property. Full particulars of the claim are attached.
(~~The Claimant is also making a claim for money~~).

This claim will be heard on: 20 at am/pm at

At the hearing

The Court will consider whether or not you must leave the property and, if so, when.
It will take into account information the Claimant provides and any you provide.

What you should do

Get help and advice immediately from a solicitor or an advice agency.
Help yourself and the court by filling in the defence form and coming to the hearing to make sure the court knows all the facts.
Defendant’s name and address for service
CAROL EILEEN KANE
(address redacted)

Court fee £175.00

Solicitor’s costs £

Total amount £

Issue date 08 AUG 2013

N5 Claim form for possession of property (08.05) HCMS
Document has the Birkenhead County Court seal and is also stamped Date of Service 12 AUG 2013 Solicitors to Serve

Claim No.

Grounds for possession
The claim for possession is made on the following ground (s):

rent arrears
other breach of tenancy
forfeiture of the lease
mortgage arrears
other breach of the mortgage
tresspass
(tick) other (please specify) expiry of tenancy

Anti-social behaviour

The claimant is alleging
actual or threatened anti-social behaviour
actual or threatened use of the property for unlawful purposes

Is the claimant claiming demotion of tenancy? Yes (tick next to No) No
Is the claimant claiming an order suspending the right to buy? Yes (tick next to No) No
See full details in the attached particulars of claim.
Does, or will, the claim raise any issues under the Human Rights Act 1998? Yes (tick next to No) No

Statement of Truth
*(~~I believe~~)(The Claimant believes) that the facts stated in this claim form are true.
* I am duly authorised by the claimant to sign this statement.

signed (Surjit Tour’s signature) date 5th August 2013
*(Claimant)(~~Litigation friend (where the claimant is a child or a patient)(Claimant’s solicitor)~~
*delete as appropriate
Full name SURJIT TOUR
Name of claimant’s solicitor’s firm WIRRAL METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL
position or office held Head of Legal & Democratic Services
                         (if signing on behalf of firm or company)

Claimant’s or claimant’s solicitor’s address to which documents or payments should be sent if different from overleaf. Postcode

if applicable

Ref no. AB/26560

fax no. 01942 691 8482

DX no. DX 708630 Seacombe

e-mail alibayatti@wirral.gov.uk

Tel. no. 0151 691 8137

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Particulars of Claim

IN THE BIRKENHEAD COUNTY COURT         Claim No.
BETWEEN:-

WIRRAL METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

Claimant

-and-

CAROL EILEEN KANE (1)

First Defendant

-and-

VALERIE PATRICIA WOODLEY (2)

Second Defendant

=======================================================================================================

PARTICULARS OF CLAIM

=======================================================================================================

1. The Claimant is the owner of approximately 10.12 acres of land situated at and described as land at Sandbroook Lane, Moreton, Wirral, Merseyside and shown edged in red on the plan attached.

2. On 29 July 2008 the Claimant entered into a lease of the land with the First and Second Defendants who are trustees of the Upton Park Pony Owner’s Association. Upon expiry of the fixed term the lease converted into a monthly periodic tenancy in July 2011. The expressed rent payable for the lease was £4200 per year payable in equal monthly instalments.

3. On 13^th July 2012 the First and Second Defendants were served with a notice in the prescribed form persuant to section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant Act

1954 the effect of which notifies them as Tenants of the intention to bring the tenancy to an end on 31^st May 2013 but that the Council had no objection in the meantime to creating a new lease on certain terms.

4. The terms specified within the notice indicated that a new lease could be agreed if the rent was increased to £4500 per year and a payment of £500 for legal fees.

5. The First Defendant acknowledged receipt of the notice on 17^th July 2012. She sent a letter to the Council in April 2013 to explain that the Association had been enduring a difficult period with increased costs due to, amongst other things, flooding and repairs/maintenance. She also rang the Council in and around April 2013 on three or four occasions expressing the same. She requested that the rent remain at £4200 per year and that the legal fee be waved on the basis that the lease would be in terms similar to the then existing lease.

6. The notice gave the tenants an opportunity to agree a new lease on the proposed terms. In the event that the parties were unable to agree the terms of a new lease the notice specified that the tenants could either make an application to Court by 31^st May 2013 or do so after that date only where there is agreement in writing from the Claimant to extend the deadline.

7. No application has been made by either party nor has there been an agreement in writing or at all by the Claimant to extend the deadline for an agreement to be reached or an application to be made.

8. There is a warning on the face of the notice saying that tenants will lose their right to apply to the Court if an application is not made on or before the 31st May 2013. As a result the tenancy has been terminated in accordance with the law and the Claimant is therefore entitled to possession.

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The map attached to the Particulars of Claim

title
Land at
Sandbrook Lane
Upton

scale 1:2500
date 8/7/2013
map ref. 39SE

© Crown Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Published 2010. Licence number 100019803.
Tel: 0151 666 3884 Fax: 0151 606 2090
Asset Management Section, Universal and Infrastructure Services, Cheshire Lines Building, Canning Street, Birkenhead, CH41 1ND

The map is Crown Copyright but if you follow this link the land in question is the land North of Fernbank Lane (which is found next to the M53 Junction 2 spur), West of Manor Drive, South of the houses on Croft Drive and East of the houses in Ravenstone Close and The Park House.

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Continues at EXCLUSIVE: What was the defence used in Wirral Council’s court case to evict the Fernbank Farm tenants?.

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Getting information about Fernbank Farm is made unusually difficult; what are they trying to hide?

I went to Birkenhead County Court today to get copies of documents to do with Wirral Council’s request for a possession order in the Fernbank Farm case. What I had requested was a copy of the two judgements (the first one arising from the application hearing on the 21st November 2013 and the second one from the fast track trial from February this year). I also had requested the “statement of case” and was told by letter that copies of these documents would come to £10.

When I paid the £10 I was given a copy of court orders dated 17th February 2014 (the possession order) and a court order I wasn’t aware of (that had been made without a hearing) on the 29th November 2013. I queried whether this was the one I’d asked for as the date was incorrect, but the member of staff insisted it was the right one (even though it wasn’t). I was also given a copy of the original particulars of claim (which had been attached to the claim form). This came to six pages in total.

I queried with the member of staff at the counter as to why the original claim form hadn’t been included, as the letter I had got in reply from the Court stated that a District Judge had agreed that I was entitled to a copy of the court orders and the statement of case (which I am entitled to under Civil Procedure Rule 5.4C). She insisted that the “statement of case” was just the particulars of claim and that I wasn’t entitled to any more documents beyond that which I had already received. I asked her to check the definition in the Civil Procedure Rules but she refused to do so.

I was going to the University of Liverpool library anyway, so while I was there I looked up what “statement of case” actually means. It’s defined in Part 2.3 of the Civil Procedure Rules as
“statement of case –

(a) means a claim form, particulars of claim where these are not included in a claim form, defence, Part 20 claim, or reply to defence; and

(b) includes any further information given in relation to them voluntarily or by court order under rule 18.1;”

So I printed off a copy of this and returned to the Birkenhead County Court querying why statement of case had been interpreted as meaning just the particulars of claim (especially as the

if applicable
Ref no.	AB/26560
fax no.	01942 691 8482
DX no.	DX 708630 Seacombe
e-mail	alibayatti@wirral.gov.uk
Tel. no.	0151 691 8137

Court fee	£175.00
Solicitor’s costs	£
Total amount	£