§
4 Clause 7, page 5, line 35, at end insert—
'(aa) any fact relevant to the plaintiff's right of action has been deliberately concealed from him by the defendant; or'
§ 5 Clause 7, page 5, line 39, leave out 'or the' and insert', concealment or'
§ 6Clause 7, page 6, leave out lines 1 to 14.
The LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, with your Lordships' permission, I will speak to Amendments Nos. 4, 5 and 6 and put them together en bloc. I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 4, 5 and 6. The effect of these amendments is to remove subsection (2)(b) of the new Section 26 inserted into the 1939 Act by Clause 7. Clause 7 provided that a plaintiff who wishes to invoke the extended limitation period contained in Section 26, on the grounds that the defendant had deliberately concealed from him a fact relevant to his right of action, also had to prove that it would be unjust to allow the defendant to rely on the expiry of the limitation period. I expect the noble and learned Lord, Lord Elwyn-Jones, will remember that we had a short debate on this. Therefore, I do not think I need pursue the matter, except to say that the Government agree with the view taken by the Law Society and others that this additional safeguard is unnecessary.
Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said amendments.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ Lord ELWYN-JONESMy Lords, I agree that this should be done. The question has been raised in relation to 728 Clause 7 that the difficult question of latent defect has not yet been dealt with in this Bill. In another place, whereas there was general satisfaction, which I certainly express, that it was desirable that the judicial mind should be applied to that problem before the Government rushed in where judicial minds had feared to tread, or whatever judicial minds do, an assurance was given that this matter would be further considered, possibly by reference to the appropriate Committee—I know not. I shall be interested if the noble and learned Lord has had an opportunity to consider this already. It is not a long time since it was raised. I would, however, be interested to know whether any further steps have been taken on this interesting study.
The LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord. I am sorry to say I have nothing really to add to what my honourable and learned friend said in another place in Committee stage (I think it is page 7 of the Hansard of the Committee stage of that Bill), but I certainly repeat in your Lordships' House the assurance that he was giving—that the matter is under consideration.