Practice – Civil litigation. The claimant social housing provider's possession proceedings against the claimant tenant were dismissed for its failure to attend a directions hearing. The judge subsequently granted relief from sanctions, pursuant to CPR 3.9, and the defendant appealed. The Queen's Bench Division, in dismissing the appeal, held that, although the balance had been a fine one, the judge had been entitled, in the exercise of his discretion, to conclude that the just outcome of the application had been to grant relief.