The EAT has handed down judgment in Melki v Bouygues E&S Contracting UK Ltd 2024 EAT 36. James Goudie KC, Oliver Mills and Aliya Al-Yassin acted pro bono for the Appellant under the auspices of Advocate.
This is the first case considering the application of new EAT rule 37(5) which introduces a power for the EAT to extend time where a minor error to submit relevant documents with the Notice of Appeal has been rectified and it is just to extend time having regard to all the circumstances.
The new rule 37(5) came into force on 30 September 2023, after this appeal was instituted. The Respondent argued that it would be absurd for this rule to apply to appeals instituted before 30 September 2023. The EAT accepted the Appellant’s argument that rule 37(5) applied to all appeals, including those instituted before 30 September 2023.
The EAT applied rule 37(5) but held that omitting the Grounds of Resistance did not constitute a “minor error”.
The judgment is available here.
