Court Claim should be against our company

[king100]

Got issued with a CCMCC, with court fees and sol costs.

 

Called up original creditor and paid the original sum excluding the fees.

 

Do i need to pay the fees?

 

I called up the sol involved and told them I have paid the original amount.

 

They said they still intend to go to court to get the fees.

 

Is this correct?

[BankFodder]

What's a CCMCC?

 

(Pardon my ignorance)

[king100]

says on top of form Northampton (CCMCC) County Court. Its the small claims court.

[BankFodder]

Okay, a County Court claim.

 

Yes, I'm afraid that once the claim is issued then you are liable for the full extent of the sum claimed – unless you have a defence against it. I suppose that by paying it, you have effectively admitted the debt.

 

Sorry.

[king100]

Morning

 

We had, what we thought was a breach of contract and went and saw a solicitor for advice. The contract was between us ABC Ltd and DEF Ltd company. My partner who is a director went to the solicitors for the advice. The initial contract was signed by my partner on behalf of ABC Ltd.

 

Cut a long story short the bill never got paid.

 

Last week we received a court summons for the bill plus costs. The summons was in my partners name, no mention of the company whatsoever.

 

After hearing about this I went down the the solicitors and paid a cheque for the original amount from our business account.

 

Shall I inform the solicitors that took us to court that the claim is against the wrong person? And that it should be our company. And that no money is due as they accepted and cashed my cheque. Surely that is the reason you have a Ltd, they cant go after a director personally.

 

Would this be my defense? The court papers have been served on the wrong entity and should have been our company?

 

We received the papers early last week.

 

Any help appreciated.

 

PS the actual help from the solicitors was useless.

[BankFodder]

You should certainly write to the solicitors and inform them that they have brought their claim against the wrong party because the contract was made with a limited liability company. Point out to them that you will be defending the claim and that this will be the basis of your defence.

 

Make sure that you do defend the claim. Put in a defence now which says that the defendant denies that any contract existed with him and that he is aware of a contract but that it is with a limited liability company and therefore there is no cause of action and the claim should be struck out.

 

Make sure you do this now and don't miss any deadlines.

[king100]

Cheers Bankfodder

 

What can the sols do? As we have cleared the debt now through our Ltd company account.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Cheers Bankfodder

 

What can the sols do? As we have cleared the debt now through our Ltd company account.

Has the court been informed the debt is paid?

[king100]

not yet, we have only paid the initial amount not the debt including the sol costs and the fee.

[BankFodder]

I don't think that there is much that the solicitors can do.

 

On the basis of what you say they have made an error. Your company has managed to pay the bill before they have been issued proceedings.

 

I don't think that you need to inform the court. The partner as an individual has no responsibility for this at all. In your letter you will be informing the solicitors of their error, the reason for your defence and also letting them know that the bill has been paid and if they try to sue the company, you will point out that no money is owed.

[Gemma.]

I thought there was a part of the defence form that had the option to say you had paid, but, of course it has to be said that the company, ie someone else has paid and that the person was not liable?

[BankFodder]

I think that it is best to keep the individual identity and the corporate identity strictly separate.

[king100]

going to email the sols as stated above, just checking that the cheque has cleared and that they have therefore accepted it as payment.

[king100]

email sent lets wait for reply