statute barred

A claim or cause of action is only able to be made within a fixed period of time. These times used to be governed by the general law; however they are now fixed by statute, and thus "statute-barred".

When the time available to a claimant to bring a claim expires, the claim is said to be “statute barred”. In practice, this does not so much mean that the claim cannot be sued on by a claimant – it is difficult to prevent any person from actually issuing legal proceedings – but rather the defendant will have a complete defence to the claim, because the claim is statute barred.

Time bars  - Limitation Act

The Limitation Act 1980 is the principal statute which fixes expiration dates for claims in the UK. The Act defines limitation periods by reference to types of claim. For instance, and generally speaking:

1. Claims under a contract are able to be made within 6 years;
2. Claims arising from a deed have an expiration date of 12 years;
3. Claims relating to the recovery of land, 12 years;
4. Recovery of sums secured by a mortgage, or proceeds of sale of land, 12 years.
5. There is no limitation period statute bar which applies to claims for fraud until it is discovered;
6. Breach of trust, 6 years;
7. Fraudulent breach of trust, time runs from the time the claimant is aware of the relevant facts;
8. Breaches of fiduciary duties, most often 6 years, but sometimes no limit of time;
9. Enforcement of a judgment, 6 years.

These periods are able to be further limited by contract, subject to the test of reasonableness which finds form in the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

Start of Time
Time under these limitation periods obviously must start to run from a particular point in time. Those times are:

1. Contract: when the contract was breached. This would include dates upon which a debt fell due and payable;
2. Deed: as above;
3. Torts: from the date when the tort occurred, whether the relevant conduct was an act or omission. This includes, copyright infringement, negligence, trespass, the tort of conversion, conspiracy and procuring a breach of contract.

The time stops running on a time bar when the claim form is filed with the Court and served in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules.

Extensions of Time to Limitation Periods

In cases of negligence, sometimes a claimant has no way of knowing that a tort has been committed at the time it was committed, or even shortly after it was committed. This is due to damage being incurred over the fullness of time, which leads the claimant back to the approximate time that a negligent act must have been committed.

The Latent Damage Act extends the statute bar for upto a period of 3 years, from the time which the claimant ought to have known of the facts giving rise to the claim.

Courts will be wary of additional claims being added by way of amendment which are themselves statute barred.

What it all Means

Often one set of facts may be framed and advanced in a statement of case in a number of ways. For instance, a surveyor who negligently performs work may also be exposed to claim for breach of contract.

In the same way, a claim for negligence may also be presented as a claim for fraud if all of the elements for fraud are satisfied. In this way, claimants may be able to present a prima facie case that a relevant time bar imposed by statute does not apply.

These limitations periods mean that:

1. A creditor has 6 years to commence debt recovery proceedings, and 12 years if the debt was set up under a deed;
2. Banks and other mortgagees have 12 years to commence litigation to recover debts secured under mortgage (which is executed as a deed);
3. A claim for negligence (such as negligently performed professional services) must be made within 6 years, however if the claim can be structured as a claim for fraud, the statute bar can be extended;
4. Some breach of duties by employees and directors are able to be commenced up to 6 years from the breach, and in some cases, there is no limit.