place of making contract for small claims court

rugbyman

Hello, hope someone can help me here.

On the small claims website it says the case should be taken a. where thew person being sued lives/conducts business OR b. where the contract was made.

My friend is being sued by a chap who made the claim where HE ,the claimant ,lives. the service ordered involved ringing the service provider to enquire about the process, sending the faulty unit by post,and awaiting its return.

Our reckoning, and our solicitors, is that the place of making the contract is the place of business of the repair shop.


If this is so then the court clerk who accepted the case has done both parties a dis service. the case, in our opinion is easlily defeated, but the distances involved are 400 round trip miles.

Three e mails to the court remain unanswered, we propose to send a registered letter to the Court clerk/Judge.

Can anyone help?

second question, is there any onus on the clerk to check out whether a case has any viability inthe first place ,or do they accept all cases

regards

rugbyman

bump

4ensic15

The District Court rules are that the claim must be made in the place where it is alleged the contract was made or where the defendant resides or carries on business. Where a contract was made is a matter for evidence. It can't be decided by a clerk pre-hearing. A contract is made in the place where the offer is accepted. That may well be the place where someone accepted a quote.

Fred Swanson

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rugbyman

4ensic15 wrote: »

The District Court rules are that the claim must be made in the place where it is alleged the contract was made or where the defendant resides or carries on business. Where a contract was made is a matter for evidence. It can't be decided by a clerk pre-hearing. A contract is made in the place where the offer is accepted. That may well be the place where someone accepted a quote.

Thank you 4ensic for your reply. both you and the next rperson who replied say
it is not the role of the clerk to decide where the contract was made. you say it is a matter of evidence, but who rules on thios evidence, the Judge? that means the case went to court even though it perhaps should not have( because of no reason tp think the contract was made in the case takers own area.

e.g man from Cork rings a starter motor repairer in Donegal, who agrees to repair the motor ,if repairable, for 100 euro. how on earth can the contract be anywhere other than Donegal. you have suggested that the contract may be in Cork as thats where the owner of the starter lives,works,rang from

though I understand your logic , do you think such a decision was ever made by a judge.i.e. that the contract was made in Cork?



if this could be so, and that clerks have no duty to scan the case to see if it is completely unreasonable,somewhat unreasonable, or just unreasonable, then the case goes ahead in Cork and the chap from Donegal has to travel and attend, or get a solicitor costing more than the 100 euro


as I type this I realise that the motor analogy is irrelevant, I refer to a case that i.m.o. is completely baseless, not scanned by the clerk(because he/she was not expected to do so) but causing the Donegal man money to travel/get represented

the case that triggered this query will be heard this week .the person being sued will travel 300 miles ,and is disabled

rugbyman

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

thank you Fred, are you actually suggesting that the Donegal motor repairer who takes the call on his mobile while doing a repair/ holidaying in Galway could have his case deemed to be a contract in galway ,and therefore hearable in galway s.c.c.

i ubderstand the logic, but do you think such a ruling was ever made?

Regards

4ensic15

rugbyman wrote: »

thank you Fred, are you actually suggesting that the Donegal motor repairer who takes the call on his mobile while doing a repair/ holidaying in Galway could have his case deemed to be a contract in galway ,and therefore hearable in galway s.c.c.

i ubderstand the logic, but do you think such a ruling was ever made?

Regards

This is classic contract law. Any contract law book will deal with this in the opening chapters and give examples. Most exams will have some kind of question about it as well. In small claims, it is the claimant who tries to make things as convenient for themselves as possible. A business can only get around it by making his local district the place where the contract is deemed to be made in his terms and conditions.