Can civil liabilities accrue to a third party who unlawfully disrupts a plaintiff such as to obstruct them from bringing a claim?

Question

Camilla has a civil claim to make against Derick, which is time-barred by 5 years. For some or all of this time, however, she is prevented from making the claim by Mike.

It's tough to set the parameters of this, in terms of how proximate the cause would have to be, and how comprehensively she would need to be thwarted, but we could imagine a whole range and spectrum of scenarios in order to identify the correct test or principles that may be applied.

Perhaps Mike accidentally causes a head-on collision with her that lands her in the hospital for 2 days, during which time she is unable to speak or to efficiently write or type. Even in this scenario, it may depend on whether these 2 days were at the beginning of these 5 years or the very end.

Much may also depend on whether Camilla could positively demonstrate that she had any actual intentions and definite plans to actually bring the claim during the course of the valid period for doing so.

Then we may also consider a scenario where she is outright kidnapped for the entirety or the great majority of the 5 years period.

Or, where, in the final hours of the valid period, after she has spent an entire 3 weeks worth of effort preparing all of the papers for her claim, Mike burns her house down through malicious arson, destroying all of her work along with its backup, or where on her way to go get the documents printed, he drives into her car and her laptop gets smashed to smithereens and her car is no longer functioning, while her house where the sole backup is stored would take hours to return to, to fetch, by which time the valid period for making her claim would have elapsed.

Perhaps directly attributable oblique intent is required, where Mike falsely imprisons Camilla as a disgruntled customer at her place of work, standing in the doorway and refusing to allow her to leave until she sees to his car being re-serviced properly, and she clearly tells him numerous times that she would not be able to look into it until after the weekend, but that if he does not step aside and allow her to leave, that she would miss out of £X,000 (the potential value of her claim against Derick), and that in such a scenario, he would be held liable, but he continues to insist on falsely imprisoning her to meet his unrealistic and unlawful demands.

The question is, of course, when, if ever, the liability against Derick could ever be placed onto Mike for prejudicing Camilla, or if it is simply her loss.

Answer 1

I'll address this one, which I think sits apart from the other scenarios, with a frame challenge:

Or, where, in the final hours of the valid period, after she has spent an entire 3 weeks worth of effort preparing all of the papers for her claim, Mike burns her house down through malicious arson, destroying all of her work along with its backup, or where on her way to go get the documents printed, he drives into her car and her laptop gets smashed to smithereens and her car is no longer functioning, while her house where the sole backup is stored would take hours to return to, to fetch, by which time the valid period for making her claim would have elapsed.

Claims do not normally require 3 weeks of work. Submitting particulars of claim with the claim form is optional. Under CPR 7.4(1) you can issue the claim form by itself, request that the court not serve it, and then serve particulars of claim up to 4 months later together with the claim form.

That means that all is required is to complete the basic information that the claim form requires (e.g. names, addresses, a brief paragraph describing the claim, etc.). Even if you have to do this in a rush and get some details wrong you may be able to fix it after issuing the claim. For example, if you forget to include a cause of action you could make an application to amend the claim under Section 35 of the Limitation Act 1980, using Mike's actions as a supporting argument for granting the application.

You should note however that you will always face an uphill battle trying to extend a limitation period. That's because the court will take a dim view of leaving it until mere hours before the deadline which will inevitably expose you to avoidable risks (e.g. traffic, internet outages, etc.). If you're approaching a limitation period but are not yet ready to bring the claim for some justifiable reason, the recommended approach is to issue the claim and then make an application to stay the proceedings while you deal with any outstanding issues. See for example Paragraph 17 of the Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols Practice Direction:

This Practice Direction and the pre-action protocols do not alter the statutory time limits for starting court proceedings. If a claim is issued after the relevant limitation period has expired, the defendant will be entitled to use that as a defence to the claim. If proceedings are started to comply with the statutory time limit before the parties have followed the procedures in this Practice Direction or the relevant pre-action protocol, the parties should apply to the court for a stay of the proceedings while they so comply.