HL Deb 16 July 1986 vol 478 cc909-10

3 Page 6, line 8, after "above", insert "sections 1 and 2 of.

4 Page 6, line 11, at end insert—

(3) Section 3 of this Act shall only apply in cases where an interest in damaged property is acquired after this Act comes into force but shall so apply, subject to subsection (4) below, irrespective of whether the original cause of action accrued before or after this Act comes into force.

(4) Where—

  1. (a) a person acquires an interest in damaged property in circumstances to which section 3 would apart from this subsection apply; but
  2. (b) the original cause of action accrued more than six years before this Act comes into force;

The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 3 and 4. The amendments are purely transitional. Clause 3 creates, as the House will remember, a new action in tort to remove the effect of the law as set forth in Perry v. Tendring, that an already accrued right of action in negligence is not transferred to a purchaser who acquires without knowledge of the accrued damage.

The new cause of action applies only to property acquired after the commencement of the Act, but it turns in substance on the original cause of action, hich may be time passed by. The amendments ensure that a plaintiff who is a purchaser under Clause 3 has as good a right of action as his vendor but no better a cause of action than his vendor.

To achieve this subsection (3) ensures that Clause 3 applies only to post-commencement acquisitions. Subsection (4) excludes accrual where the original cause of action accrued more than six years before commencement. But subsection (4) excludes from that six-year bar cases to which Section 32(1)(b) of the 1980 Act applies. These are really only transitional and technical amendments. I beg to move.

Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in the said amendments.—(The Lord Chancellor.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.