Can you get more time to bring your claim because of something the other side has said?

Parties generally have six years to bring a claim in England based on breach of a contract or on a tort (civil wrong). Time starts running from the date when the cause of action accrued (so, for example, from the date of the breach of contract). However, under the Limitation Act 1980, time will start running again if the potential defendant "acknowledges" a "debt or other liquidated pecuniary claim" before the six year period has expired (from the date of the acknowledgment).

The issue in a recent case was whether there had been such an "acknowledgment".

The requirement for an acknowledgment is that it is in writing and signed by the person making it (or his/her agent) and made to the potential claimant, or his/her agent. There must also be an admission of both liability and quantum (that is, nothing is left in dispute).

In LJR Interiors Ltd v Cooper Construction, an email had been sent by the potential defendant to the potential claimant from the email address of the potential defendant's managing director's PA, with the electronic signature "Regards, Andrew". That was held to be enough to satisfy the formal requirements of the 1980 Act.

However, the judge found that there had not been an acknowledgement here, because only a part of the claim had been acknowledged in the email (in fact, there had only been a £10 acknowledgment of a potential claim worth over 300 times that amount). Accordingly, time had not started to run again because of that email.