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Practice – Civil litigation. The Commercial Court dismissed an application by the owners of a vessel for relief from sanctions (initially under CPR 3.9) and for an extension of time to comply with an unless order to deliver up an electronic archive in respect of a claim brought against the defendant war risk underwriters, following an explosion on a vessel, which had been struck out for non-compliance with the order. The court found that the owners' story about their inability to hand over the archive was a fabrication and that, on a proper analysis, what the owners were really seeking (as reflected by their amended application notice) was a variation of the order to substitute for the absolute obligation to disclose the archive, in other words an application under CPR 3.1(7). The court ruled that there could be no question of any relief against sanctions in circumstances where breach of the unless order had not been remedied and there was no basis for a variation or revocation of the order or for relief from sanctions applying the 'Denton' three-staged test. Accordingly, the claim remained struck out.
Practice – Civil litigation. The Commercial Court dismissed an application by the owners of a vessel for relief from sanctions (initially under CPR 3.9) and for an extension of time to comply with an unless order to deliver up an electronic archive in respect of a claim brought against the defendant war risk underwriters, following an explosion on a vessel, which had been struck out for non-compliance with the order. The court found that the owners' story about their inability to hand over the archive was a fabrication and that, on a proper analysis, what the owners were really seeking (as reflected by their amended application notice) was a variation of the order to substitute for the absolute obligation to disclose the archive, in other words an application under CPR 3.1(7). The court ruled that there could be no question of any relief against sanctions in circumstances where breach of the unless order had not been remedied and there was no basis for a variation or revocation of the order or for relief from sanctions applying the 'Denton' three-staged test. Accordingly, the claim remained struck out.
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