Limitation of Actions Consultation - Law Commission

7.25 Under section 10(4), where the contribution is sought in respect of damages paid
as part of an agreed settlement, the relevant date is the earliest date at which
agreement on the amount of damages was reached between the defendant and the
person to whom the damages were paid. It is irrelevant whether the potential
defendant admits liability as part of the settlement or not; it is also irrelevant that
other terms in the settlement have not been concluded at the date when the
amount has been agreed between the parties. Only the agreement of the amount
is important for limitation purposes. The position where the defendant is sued by
more than one plaintiff in respect of the same damage (as with damage caused to
jointly owned property) and reaches agreement on the amount of damages due to
each plaintiff at different times is unclear. Section 10(4) could be interpreted as
meaning that a fresh right of action will accrue in respect of each payment made
by the defendant, so that the limitation period for an action to recover a
contribution for a particular payment will run from the date when that payment
was agreed. An alternative interpretation is that one right of action accrues in
respect of all payments made by the defendant in settlement of a particular
dispute, so that the limitation period in respect of an action to recover a
contribution for any payment runs from the date the amount of the latest payment
was agreed. There appears to be no authority on the point and it is unclear which
interpretation is correct.
(3) Other Statutes
(a) Introduction
7.26 Section 39 of the 1980 Act states that the provisions of the 1980 Act are subject to
any other period of limitation provided in any other enactment. 53
A number of
statutes do include limitation provisions in respect of particular actions. Table 2 -
at the end of this Part - lists the principal limitation periods found outside the
1980 Act. 54
They include those Acts which incorporate international conventions
into English law.
7.27 A number of these statutes give the court a discretion to exclude the limitation
period. This is the case for the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, the Solicitors Act
1974, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Inheritance (Provision for Family and
Dependants) Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Company Directors
Disqualification Act 1986, the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 and the Disability
Discrimination Act 1995. In our discussion of options for reform, we shall be
looking at whether the use of judicial discretion to exclude limitation periods
should be supported. It therefore seems worthwhile here briefly outlining the
nature of the discretion under these Acts.
53 This is to be distinguished from causes of action in statutes (where no special limitation
period is laid down by the particular statute) which are governed by, eg, ss 8 - 9 of the 1980
Act.
54 This is not a comprehensive list of all statutory limitation periods outside the Limitation
Act 1980. It would be a Herculean task to identify all such limitation periods, and it is not
one we have thought realistic to attempt.
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