Proposals to Amend English Law on Limitation of Actions

The Law Commission has published on 10 July 2001 its final Report number 270 containing the conclusions of its extended consideration of the law on limitation of actions. It recommends that the Limitation Act 1980 should be repealed and replaced with a new Act which applies a single limitations regime, as far as possible to all claims, for a remedy for a wrong, or for the enforcement of a right and claims for restitution.

Under this regime, claims would be subject to two limitation periods:

• a primary limitation period of 3 years running from the date on which the claimant knows (or ought to know) the relevant facts, and
• a long-stop limitation period of 10 years running from the date on which the events giving rise to the claim took place.

There would be exceptions to this regime. Claims in relation to personal injuries, for example, would only be subject to the primary limitation period, and the courts would have a discretion to disapply this limitation period. However, this would only relate to personal injury claims based on negligence or trespass to the person, for example, and not to strict product liability claims under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, which would remain subject to the regime provided for under Directive 85/374/EEC, which provides for a 3 year primary limitation period from date of knowledge and a 10 year long-stop from the date on which the producer put the product into circulation.

Overall, these changes are not of great significance in relation to product liability claims, but provide a welcome degree of consistency across the law. Many manufacturers and insurers will be pleased to see that the Law Commission has proposed a long-stop provision and also that this should be limited to 10 years: considerably longer periods had previously been mooted.

The Law Commission has appended to its Report a draft Act, but there is no time limit for adoption of this nor certainty that it will be adopted. The Government now has to consider the Report and, if it accepts it, find Parliamentary time for the Bill. The Government's record on implementation of Law Commission Reports is not good, and there is a considerable backlog of unimplemented provisions. For further information on this topic, please contact Chris Hodges at chris.hodges@cms-cmck.com or on +44 (0)20 7367 2783.