Thread: Help with my Court Bundle? Due to be mailed tomorrow(15/06/07) - Court Date:03/07/07

Right, my court date is 3rd July which means I have to get all my stuff off by tomorrow at the latest.

I've started this thread to get definitive answers on some things. My original thread is here.

Thanks to everyone for their advice so far especially GuidoT and Lateralus.

I'm going to post all the documents to DG tomorrow by next-day delivery and hand in the court copy to Brighton county court around the same time.

The Notice of Hearing states that "10 Minutes have been allowed for the Hearing".

I appreciate all the advice on this forum but I've found that some of the examples that have been listed along with the guidelines don't correlate. I'm sure this is probably me missing the point but I'd like some things cleared up.

Here are all the documents I have so far (I've used Corn Flake's Summary of Contents in Post 17 to arrange everything).

Case Summary (Is This Needed???)
Statement of evidence (I've posted this below - can someone check?)
Correspondence from Claimant
Correspondence from Defendant (From HSBC I only have the one letter from them with their paltry offer which happened to turn up after the deadline for accepting it - should I include this?)
Bank Statements
Schedule Of Charges
Relevant Case Law Summary
Early Day Motion From The House Of Parliament
Dunlop v New Garage
UTCCR 1999
UCTA 1977
SOGA 1982
Terms & Conditions (As suggested by Lateralus in the Court Bundle for Dummies Thread - Can someone tell me which month/year these are?)
OFT Statement Summary
BBC Commission Conclusion


I also have the following documents from GuidoT's Court Bundle PDF,

1. Robin v Harman extract from Keating
2. Murray v Leisureplay transcript
3. Australian Unfair Fees report
4. Peter McNamara Transcript
5. A copy of the settled claims from this site as found in the Litigation Section

Can someone tell me where the above five documents fit into the order of my court bundle.

Is there anything else I need to include?

Also, with all of this my entire court bundle runs to well over 200 pages. Probably over 300 with the T&C and my statements and correspondance. Is this right? Is there anything I can cut out?

All Help greatly appreciated,

Rob

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Here is my Statement of Evidence. I used the first Template in Post 55 of the New strategy for Allocation Questionaires thread,

Claim Number: 7BN00646

In the Brighton county court

Between:

Robert Camp

(Claimant)

and

HSBC Bank Plc

(Defendant)

_________________________ ______

STATEMENT OF EVIDENCE

_______________________

1. The Claimant submits that the charges levied to his bank account, as set out in the enclosed schedule, are, notwithstanding the defence of the defendant, penalty charges arising from and relating directly to breaches of contract, both explicit and implied, on the part of the claimant. As a contractual penalty, the charges are unenforceable by virtue of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, the Unfair Contracts (Terms) Act 1977, and the common law.

2. It is admitted that the Defendants charges were levied in accordance with the terms and conditions of the account in question. However, it is submitted that the Defendants charges are not related to or intended to represent any actual loss arising from a breach of contract, but instead unduly enrich the Defendant which, by virtue of the legislation cited in paragraph 10 above, exercises the contractual term in respect of such charges with a view to profit.

3. The Defendant avers that the charges levied are legitimate fixed price contractual services, unrelated to breaches of contract, which are therefore not required to be a pre-estimate of loss incurred on the part of the defendant. The Claimant further submits that this contention is merely an attempt to ‘cloak’, or disguise, their penalties in order to circumvent the common law and statutory prohibition of default penalty charges with view to a profit.

4. The Claimant believes the definition of a 'service' to be a provision of knowledge, skill or other transferable facility that benefits the consumer, and one that the consumer agrees is at a reasonable market rate commensurable with the service provided. The Claimant believes it to be inconceivable that the charges levied to his account by the defendant could be any form of ‘service’, rather than a penalty.

5. I understand the definition of 'breach of contract' to be the failure of a party, without legal excuse, to perform a contractually agreed obligation pursuant to any or all of the terms agreed within that contract. I have an overdraft with the defendant. This overdraft has a contractually agreed limit, which is an express term of the bank account contract between myself and the Defendant. When I exceeded this agreed overdraft limit, therefore breaching an express term of the contract between myself and the Defendant, I was consequentially penalised for each such breach by way of a charge of between £18 or £27.50.

6. In the case of Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co v New Garage & Motor Co [1915] AC 79, Lord Dunedin stated that a clause is a penalty if it provides for;

"The essence of a penalty is a payment of money stipulated as in-terrorem of the offending part;”
I.e. if it is designed to scare or coerce or is used as a threat. It is submitted that the charges applied are not representative of any 'service' provided by the Defendant, but instead are punitive, and held "in-terrorem".

7. The Claimant further submits that the Defendant’s contention that the charges are now a legitimate service charge represents a contradiction to materials published by the bank previously.

8. Additionally, the claimant believes there to be a high possibility that the terms and conditions of his account contract explicitly describe the charges as to be levied in instances of breaching those terms.

9. The Claimant refers to the statement from the Office of Fair Trading (April 2006), who conducted a thorough investigation into default charges levied by the British financial industry. While the report primarily focused on Credit card issuers, the OFT stated that the principle of their findings would also apply to Bank account charges. They ruled that default charges at the current level were unfair within their interpretation of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. With regard to the ‘cloaking’ or disguising of penalties, the OFT said this;

“4.21 The analysis in this statement is in terms of explicit, transparent default fees. Attempts to restructure accounts in order to present events of default spuriously as additional services for hich a charge may be made should be viewed as disguised penalties and equally open to challenge where grounds of unfairness exist. (For example, a charge for ‘agreeing’ or ‘allowing’ a customer to exceed a credit limit is no different from a customers default in exceeding a credit limit.) The UTCCR’s are concerned with the intentions and effects of terms, not just their mechanism”.

10. As submitted above, the Claimant believes the charges levied to his account to be disproportionate contractual penalties, arising from clear and demonstrable breaches of express terms of the account contract between itself and the Defendant. The Claimant vehemently refutes the Defences contention that they are legitimate contractual service charges.

11. However, and without prejudice to the above, in the event the charges were accepted by this honourable court as being a fee for a contractual service, the claimant submits that they are unreasonable under section 15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

12. Further, under the UTCCR:

"5. - (1) A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.

(2) A term shall always be regarded as not having been individually negotiated where it has been drafted in advance and the consumer has therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term.

(3) Notwithstanding that a specific term or certain aspects of it in a contract has been individually negotiated, these Regulations shall apply to the rest of a contract if an overall assessment of it indicates that it is a pre-formulated standard contract.

(4) It shall be for any seller or supplier who claims that a term was individually negotiated to show that it was."

Schedule 2 also includes such clauses (to define examples of unfair clauses) as:

"(i) irrevocably binding the consumer to terms with which he had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted before the conclusion of the contract;

(j) enabling the seller or supplier to alter the terms of the contract unilaterally without a valid reason which is specified in the contract;

(m) giving the seller or supplier the right to determine whether the goods or services supplied are in conformity with the contract, or giving him the exclusive right to interpret any term of the contract."

The defendant is a multi-national corporation. The term regarding charges was inserted unilaterally in contract. The contract was pre and mass produced and I had no opportunity to negotiate the clause, or indeed any of the contract.

13. Following on from the above, the claimant does not accept The Defendants contention that the charges are enforceable as a service charge. It is not disputed that the Defendant is entitled to recover its damages following my breaches of contract, and it is entitled to include a liquidated damages clause. I accept without reservation the banks right to recover its actual losses or a genuine pre-estimate thereof. A penalty however, is unenforceable.

14. The Claimant cites the case of Robinson v Harman [1848] 1 Exch 850 which states that a contractual party cannot profit from a breach and that the charge for a loss suffered from a breach of contract should be the amount necessary to put both parties in the same position before the breach occurred.

15. Lord Dunedin in the case of Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co v New Garage & Motor Co [1915] AC 79 set down a number of principles in definition of a penalty clause and how such clause may be ascertained from a liquidated damages clause. One of these principles being -

"The sum is a penalty if it is greater than the greatest loss which could have been suffered from the breach"


16. The Claimant will further rely on numerous recorded authorities dating throughout the 20th century up to the most recent case of Murray v Leisureplay [2005] EWCA Civ 963, all of which have upheld and reinforced the principles set down by Lord Dunedin defining contractual penalty clauses and the unenforceability thereof.

17. Further, under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, schedule 2 (1) includes to define an example of an unfair clause as -

"(e) requiring any consumer who fails to fulfil his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation;"

18. On numerous occasions, the Claimant has requested that the Defendant justify its charges by providing details of the costs incurred as a result of my contractual breaches. Each time those requests were rebutted or ignored.

19. In a recent study undertaken in Australia, (Nicole Rich, “Unfair fees: a report into penalty fees charged by Australian Banks”) it was estimated that the cost to an Australian Bank of a customers direct debit refusal was estimated to be in the region of 54 cents. By reviewing the charges against the above figure, the study estimated that banks could be charging between 64 to 92 times what it costs them to process a direct debit refusal. The study’s key findings stated that in its opinion the Australian Bank’s cheque and direct debit refusal fees were likely to be penalties at law.

20. The Defendant, or indeed any of the UK banks, has never published any information to support how their charges are calculated, or what their actual costs associated with such breaches are, or what revenue they derive from such charges.

21. For their recent BBC2 documentary “The Money Programme”, the BBC appointed a commission of former senior banking industry figures and business academics to attempt to ascertain the actual costs to the UK banks of processing a customer’s breach of contract. They concluded that the absolute maximum conceivable cost that could be incurred by a direct debit refusal or overdraft excess is £2.50, and of a returned cheque £4.50. They did state however, that the actual cost is likely to be much less than this. The commission also estimated that the UK banks collectively derive as much as £4.5billion in profit a year from their charging regimes.

22. It is submitted that the Defendants charges are applied by an automated and computer driven process. This process consists of a computer system ‘bouncing’ the direct debit, and sending out a computer generated letter. It is therefore impossible to envisage how the Defendant can incur costs of between £18 and £27.50 by carrying out this completely automated process. Note that the letter received notifying of a charge is identical in every instance, and if multiple breaches occurred on the same day, a separate letter will be sent in each instance.

23. Additionally, I asked the Defendant to provide evidence of any manual intervention that may have occurred in relation to my account, under a Data Protection Act 1998 right of Subject access request. No such information was forthcoming.

24. On 22nd May 2006, the House of Commons passed an early day motion which welcomed the OFT's statement that default charges should be proportionate to the actual loss incurred. The house described such default charges as "exorbitant" and "excessive".

25. The Claimant also cites a radio interview in 2004 with Lloyds TSB’s former head of personal banking, Peter McNamara, in which he states bank charges are used to fund free banking for all personal customers as a whole.

26. As set out previously, it is submitted that The Defendant’s charges can not be considered to be a service charge. In arguing that they are, they also effectively admit that their charges make profits. The Defendant seemingly contends that their charges are not subject to any assessment of fairness whatsoever. This implies they can set these fees at whatever level they like without limit or regulation. Similarly, as set out above, the charges cannot be considered to be liquidated damages. They, by The Defendant's own admission, are not a pre-estimate of loss incurred as a result of the breach of contract. The charges are punitive, held “in-terrorem", and unduly and extravagantly enrich the Defendant. As such, they are a contractual penalties and unenforceable at law.

I, the Claimant, believe all facts stated to be true.

Robert Camp
14 June 2007

Documents attached in support of this statement

• Office of Fair Trading report, April 2006
• House of commons early day motion, May 2006
• Automated charge notification letter/s. Include a couple of examples. Preferably use ones where charges have been incurred over ridiculously small shortfalls and if possible, include 2 letters notifying of charges incurred on the same day
• BBC commission conclusion - BBC NEWS | Business | The Money Programme bank commission
• Australian Default charges report, Nicole Rich - Domain Names, Web Hosting, Web Design, Search Engine Optimisation, and Search Engine Marketing at Melbourne IT
• Data Protection Act Subject access request for evidence of manual intervention

I have a couple of questions,

1. In item 7 I have no "details of any correspondence in which the bank referred to the charges as ‘penalties’, ‘defaults’ or ‘exist to cover costs’, etc." except for the letter from Martin Orton at Lloyds. Does this apply to HSBC claims as well?

2. At the bottom of the template it reads,

Automated charge notification letter/s. "Include a couple of examples. Preferably use ones where charges have been incurred over ridiculously small shortfalls and if possible, include 2 letters notifying of charges incurred on the same day"

I have none or none that I know of. Is this a problem? Should I omit this part?

Thanks again,

Rob

Thanks Lateralus, I will have to check the wording of the offer again.

Shall note the date of the T&Cs on the contents page.

Thanks for the answer Lateralus but it's left me confused.

Originally Posted by lateralus

point 7 in the template reads:
7. The Claimant believes the definition of a 'service' to be a provision of knowledge, skill or other transferable facility that benefits the consumer, and one that the consumer agrees is at a reasonable market rate commensurable with the service provided. The Claimant believes it to be inconceivable that the charges levied to his account by the defendant could be any form of ‘service’, rather than a penalty.

ok, a bit of cross referencing and i think you'll be ok - see in the court bundle where i refer to nawanda's thread (although she was using it as a particulars of claim and it is usually a statement of evidence) some of her green bits - are bits she changed and may help you to see how to approach those iffy bits - try looking at hers (although the number may vary - just see what she put for those particular paras you have questions with.

I have examined that thread but I don't see any of the answers.

I do see that she has noted that she has no correspondance from HSBC with regards to point 7 in my Statement (point 10 in Nawanda's thread) but Nawanda doesn't go on to say whether she deleted that paragraph or not.

I also see no answer to my query about not having any examples of charge notification letters. Nawanda doesn't mention this herself.

then leave it out - too late to bother with it - just making it the best you can and let it go, i think -
good luck robbieship - you've done well!